Posts Tagged ‘appropriations’

Lawmakers should aim for a comprehensive deficit reduction deal that includes taxes, discretionary spending and entitlements, rather than an agreement that only addresses the automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic programs, Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin told reporters Thursday. “It’s got to be a comprehensive solution,” Levin said, reported CQ Today. Just reversing the $500 billion in defense cuts while ignoring reductions in health care, education and other social programs does not make sense …

The prospect of automatic spending cuts will begin to affect federal agencies in the fall, even though the first year’s tranche of $109 billion would not be imposed until January, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said Wednesday. The uncertainty as to whether Congress will successfully undo the sequester, Elmendorf told reporters, is more significant than details of how the spending cuts will be carried out, reported CQ Today. Republican lawmakers are urging the White House to outline how the sequester would affect agencies, including the Pentagon. If the sequester takes effect next year, DOD would have to pare fiscal 2013 spending by $55 billion beyond cuts already incorporated into next year’s budget. “I think the breadth of the procedures as written into law means a lot of people would be affected,” he said, according to CQ. “I’m not sure that spelling out just how they would be affected actually helps much.”

Even if Congress succeeds in reversing $500 billion in defense spending cuts set to be imposed starting in January, the Defense Department still should pare its budget by an additional $100 billion over the next 10 years, Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Tuesday. “When you look at plans to avoid sequestration, $100 billion over 10 years is a number I look at, because I think defense has got to contribute …

The Republican heads of the three House committees dealing with national security want the Obama administration to assess the impact of hundreds of billions dollars in defense cuts slated to go into effect starting in January. “We acknowledge that unless you and Congress take a positive step to avert sequestration, it will happen whether your administration has planned for it or not. Nevertheless, we believe that a comprehensive review of the mechanics of sequestration and the impacts it will have to various programs would go a long way to informing a bipartisan solution to the problem …

Yes, they are, potentially, as eloquently described by a New York Times journalist reporting on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s attempt to warn South Carolina residents of the devastating impact that up to $500 billion in automatic spending cuts over the coming decade would have on the Pentagon’s budget as well as the state’s numerous military installations. The Republican senator isn’t the only lawmaker riding across the land to warn the populace about what may happen if the first year’s portion of the budget sequester, $55 billion in DOD spending, goes into effect starting in January …

Lawmakers cannot afford to wait until after the November election to replace $500 billion in automatic cuts to defense spending with an alternate deficit reduction plan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday. “I don’t like the idea of putting everything off till after the election. I think it gets real dangerous when you start piling all of the crises into one period after the election and hope that you can solve all those issues …

House lawmakers last week approved an amendment to the fiscal 2013 military construction spending bill prohibiting the use of funds to modify structures at an installation outside of an authorized BRAC round. The amendment’s author, Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), said the provision would stop DOD from “any efforts to impose a back-door BRAC through informal channels.” “This amendment is yet another victory in our fight to protect the jobs and mission of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst,” Runyan said. The House and Senate versions of the FY 2013 defense authorization bill include more far-reaching language intended to stop DOD from realigning missions outside of a base closure round.

House lawmakers passed an appropriations bill Thursday evening that would provide $10.6 billion for all military construction programs in fiscal 2013, a $2.4 billion drop from current year spending. Some of the reduction in the military construction and veterans affairs spending bill reflects a deliberate pause in milcon proposed by the Air Force, accounting for $839 million of the decline. A reduction in requirements for BRAC 2005 explains a small part of the decrease as well …

Defense Department spending on combat operations and other activities in Afghanistan and Iraq would be subject to the budget sequester set to take effect in January, a change from an earlier determination that the Overseas Contingency Operations account would be exempt. As a result, the $55 billion in automatic spending cuts to be imposed in fiscal 2013 would be spread over a larger number of defense programs, minimizing the pain on any single account …

After delivering remarks intended to dissuade Congress from making changes to the Defense Department’s fiscal 2013 budget request that could result in a “hollowing” of the armed forces, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday offered a robust defense of the Pentagon’s push to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. In response to a reporter’s question that followed his speech at the American Enterprise Institute, Carter indicated that the department opposes language in the House and Senate versions of the defense authorization bill barring it from purchasing biofuels …