Defense Communities 360 Headlines

The White House likely won’t be finished preparing its fiscal 2014 budget request until March, putting its release four or more weeks behind schedule. “Passbacks” — the point at which the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submits drafts of the proposed budget to agencies ahead of one or more rounds of negotiations — only began this week. They usually occur in late November. As a result, officials probably will need until March to complete the budget, reported CQ News. On Tuesday a DOD official said the draft budget it received from OMB was incomplete, leaving a number of outstanding issued to be addressed. The White House is supposed to submit the annual budget to Congress by the first Monday in February, which is Feb. 4 this year.

As the threat that automatic defense cuts of about $45 billion will be triggered draws closer, the sense of pessimism regarding the willingness of the two parties to negotiate an alternate savings plan also rises. This week Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter became the first Pentagon official to acknowledge that sequestration is likely. “From what I hear, I have to conclude that it is more likely than unlikely that we’ll actually have to do this,” Carter said of the cuts. “We are serious about being ready …

Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel said he would consider carrying out a base closure round as a prudent option to cope with budget constraints, according to the responses the nominee for defense secretary submitted to policy questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. “As with industry, the department should examine its infrastructure and eliminate excess. The BRAC process is not perfect, but I believe BRAC is a fair and comprehensive way to right-size the department’s footprint, and is the best process identified to date …

Community leaders in Indian River County, Fla., are taking advantage of the Community Blueprint initiative to help returning veterans reintegrate into civilian life and obtain treatment for mental health issues. Indian River’s Veterans Council and its member organizations met with county leaders last week to talk about ways they can work together on a variety of issues, including unemployment, homelessness, education, health care and behavioral health …

At a hearing of the Alameda Planning Board, housing advocates on Monday urged the city to increase the number of homes developed at the former Naval Air Station Alameda beyond what is called for in the existing reuse plan by building a mix of housing types, from apartments to single-family homes. The advocates asked city officials to assess the impact of building up to 4,500 homes at Alameda Point when they conduct an environmental study of the project’s impacts …

A new Air Force initiative is attempting to ensure that airmen, their families and other employees receive a uniform level of installation support across the service. The Common Output Level Standards program began earlier this month with service standards for 40 different installation support functions, including family services, public affairs and the chaplain corps …

Legislation introduced last week by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) would require the Air Force to wait for multiple milestones to be reached before it could shift the 18th Aggressor Squadron’s 21 F-16s from Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage. The realignment was one of the moves the Air Force included last year in its fiscal 2013 budget request that proposed trimming the service’s force structure, primarily by eliminating aircraft and personnel from the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve …

Senate Democrats are considering alternate spending cuts and new tax revenue as part of a proposal to replace the $85 billion in fiscal 2013 spending cuts slated to go into effect March 1. The tax options would avoid calls to raise taxes on upper-income Americans and, instead, seek to eliminate a host of tax breaks for businesses and other loopholes, reported CQ News. “We believe that there are different ways of doing sequestration,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday …

Legislation introduced last week in the Senate would bolster the prospects for veterans to gain civilian employment through a variety of measures, including the streamlining of a tax credit for hiring veterans and the expansion of a program allowing service members to obtain civilian credentials for training received in the military. The Veterans Employment Transition Act, introduced by Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, would make it easier to for employers to claim a tax credit for hiring recently discharged veterans by eliminating a requirement to go through a state employment agency to verify that a veteran qualifies …

Last week’s sale of LNR Property LLC, the parent company of the master developer of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station located outside of Boston, should not affect the project now called Southfield, according to Weymouth officials. On Thursday, Greenwich, Conn.-based Starwood Property Trust and Starwood Capital Group announced they had agreed to pay $1.05 billion to buy LNR …