Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will make a decision shortly on the extent to which civilian workers will be forced to take unpaid days off, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters Wednesday. “We’re in the middle of a $37 billion to $40 billion cut over a six-month period, and we need to look closely at that, but I expect him to make a decision soon …
If Congress and the White House fail to reach a deficit reduction deal that replaces automatic spending cuts starting in fiscal 2014, the Pentagon would consider crafting an alternate budget, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday. Last month, the Obama administration sent Congress a $526.6 billion base budget for next year that does not reflect the $52 billion reduction in defense spending triggered under sequestration in FY 2014 …
Sequestration has already made a dent in local economies throughout Arizona, where 43,000 workers are employed by the defense industry, according to government officials. Government and business leaders are most concerned about the impact on smaller companies, the second- and third-tier companies in the defense supply chain, reported Politico. One challenge for officials is that there is no warning when smaller suppliers are affected by production cutbacks at larger manufacturers …
To date, the Pentagon has said all of its civilian employees will share the burden of taking unpaid days off on an equal basis, but at least one of the services has identified alternate budget cuts it could carry out that would obviate the need for civilian furloughs. As a result, defense officials face pressure to reconsider their plans, reports the Washington Post. DOD’s latest plan calls for up to 800,000 civilians to take 14 furlough days, although the department is figuring out if could reduce that number and still absorb the $41 billion sequester cut imposed this year …
The failure of the White House and congressional Democrats to leverage the anger over flight delays caused by the furlough of air traffic controllers into a government-wide annulment of this year’s sequester cuts provides strong proof that the automatic spending cuts will not be cancelled before the fiscal year is completed. For Republicans, the legislation quickly passed last week to end the furlough of controllers for the rest of fiscal 2013 represented a victory in the battle over sequestration, one reinforcing their stance that the $85 billion in cuts should remain in place for the year …
House Appropriations Chair Harold Rogers [...]
Until a deal is reached between Democrats and Republicans over topline discretionary spending for fiscal 2014, the House may consider only a small handful of individual spending bills, including defense and military construction-veterans affairs. As things stand now, House appropriators favor a government-wide spending level of $967 billion for next year, which reflects an assumption that the spending caps under sequestration will remain in effect. Senate Democrats, on the other hand, plan to set fiscal 2014 discretionary spending at the pre-sequester level of $1.058 trillion, a $91 billion difference …
The Army could be forced to eliminate at least 100,000 soldiers over the coming decade if sequestration remains in effect through fiscal 2021, the service’s top officials told lawmakers Tuesday. “One hundred thousand is the minimum,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If it goes to full sequestration, it will probably be more than that …
Funding constraints are causing the Air Force to curtail training for 13 fighter and bomber squadrons through the end of the fiscal year, but belt-tightening may help the Air Force reach one of its long-term goals, paring down its portfolio of bases. “It’s a significant forcing function,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday of one benefit of dealing with spending cuts …
An infusion of funds for DOD’s operations account courtesy of the full-year fiscal 2013 defense spending bill Congress passed in March has granted the Hampton Roads, Va., region a reprieve from many of the overhaul and other ship maintenance projects the Navy earlier had suspended. But sequestration, which could slash the defense budget by almost $500 billion through FY 2021, is still lurking and defense contractors in the area remain anxious about the future, reports the Virginian-Pilot …