Defense Communities 360 Headlines

At a House hearing Friday primarily focused on the Pentagon’s request to hold a round of base closures in 2015, lawmakers were not particularly vociferous in their opposition to BRAC, but the DOD witnesses still found themselves needing to convince a skeptical appropriations subcommittee about the rationale for a new round. In characterizing the extent to which the military has spare capacity at its installations, Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, painted the most vivid portrait when she described her service’s reliance on attrition to trim its end strength by 80,000 soldiers by 2017 …

The Army plans to determine by the end of the summer the locations that would lose brigade combat teams and additional personnel as the service carries out its plan to trim its active-duty end strength by 72,000 soldiers by fiscal 2020. The Army is considering two primary options to rebalance its force structure as it draws down from 562,000 to 490,000 troops to accommodate declining budgets over the coming decade. Under the first, the Army would inactivate a minimum of eight brigade combat teams …

Scheduled ship repairs that had been suspended due to sequestration now will go ahead, the Navy’s top budget official said Wednesday. The Navy had said that contracts for 11 ships with private shipyards would be cancelled as the Navy looked for ways to mitigate the need to slash $4.6 billion in spending by Sept. 30, reported the Virginian Pilot. Nine ships scheduled for overhaul in Hampton Roads, Va., will be repaired in coming months, and most maintenance at other shipyards in the United States and overseas will occur as well, Rear Adm. Joseph Mulloy, deputy secretary for the budget, told reporters …

The Army so far has secured $1.5 billion in third-party investments in alternative energy across its installations, helping it meet its energy efficiency targets. “We are ahead of the rest of the federal sector in using energy performance contracts,” said Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment …

Holding a BRAC round isn’t the only strategy the Defense Department is pursuing to find savings from underused facilities. By the end of the year, officials expect to complete a plan that will recommend ways “to reduce underutilization” at military hospitals and clinics, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told lawmakers Thursday during a hearing on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request …

While describing the balancing act officials strived for while crafting the service’s fiscal 2014 budget request, the Air Force’s top budget official made no secret that the service sees a new base closure round as an essential means to pare its excess capacity. “We also want to foot stomp that we’re very much in favor of BRAC,” Maj. Gen. Edward Bolton Jr., deputy assistant secretary for budget, told reporters …

In his first congressional hearing since being confirmed, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday attempted to make the case to hold a BRAC round in 2015 before a number of critics in the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee, pressed Hagel as to whether now is the right time to pursue base closures, given the challenges facing the military, including sequestration, the drawdown in Afghanistan and the pivot toward Asia …

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ $63.5 billion fiscal 2014 budget request calls for a Veterans Job Corps to invest in veterans’ skills and experience, and place tens of thousands of veterans into civilian jobs. Features of the initiative include: $1 billion in mandatory funds to help unemployed veterans; a target of putting 20,000 veterans to work within the next five years in conservation, law enforcement and infrastructure jobs on public lands; developing back-to-work programs for veterans with other federal agencies, including the Interior and Agriculture departments, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers; and supporting job-producing projects with contracts and grants with nonfederal organizations, such as states, nonprofit organizations and private businesses.

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request for $526.6 billion represents a healthy 8 percent increase over current year funding, but because it ignores the reality of sequestration it is unlikely to be realized. Instead, the White House has proposed a set of tax increases and spending cuts to reverse sequestration and the $500 billion in automatic defense cuts it requires. DOD still would need to absorb $150 billion in spending reductions over the coming decade, but those cuts would be deferred until after FY 2018 …

Along with requesting a new base closure round, the Pentagon is proposing further cuts in its civilian workforce as part of new money-saving initiatives included in its fiscal 2014 budget request. The two actions are intertwined, as DOD Comptroller Robert Hale explained to reporters Wednesday. The proposed restructuring of the civilian workforce could result in a 5 to 6 percent reduction from fiscal 2013 to 2018 …