Posts Tagged ‘automatic spending cuts’

Many of the Pentagon’s 800,000 civilian workers will be forced to take 11 days of unpaid leave by Sept. 30, three fewer days than employees had been expecting, after officials determined that the ability to reprogram funds into DOD’s operations and maintenance accounts earlier this year provided sufficient flexibility to reduce the number of furlough days. Employees will take one furlough day per week beginning July 8, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday during a town hall meeting at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Va. …

Despite the lack of cataclysmic consequences to our nation’s military since sequestration was imposed in March, automatic defense cuts the Pentagon budget is absorbing this year are not sustainable and should not be continued for the next eight years, argues defense analyst Michael O’Hanlon in an op-ed in Monday’s Washington Post. Still, there are a number of changes the department should consider that could result in savings approaching $200 billion to $250 billion …

While the $37 billion hit the defense budget is taking in the current fiscal year is harming military readiness overall, fiscal 2013 military construction projects largely have not been affected, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told lawmakers Thursday. “We believe we can absorb most of the sequestration reductions with available … savings. We don’t intend to reduce the scope of any construction projects. At least [right] now we don’t believe that will be necessary,” Hale told the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee …

Forecasts that $500 billion in defense cuts will have a grave effect on the economy and jobs are “grossly overblown,” according to a new study published by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. The study’s authors, Harvard University economist Robert Barro and Mercatus senior research fellow Veronique de Rugy, argue that a drop in federal spending on defense will result in greater economic growth due to a rise in private spending. They estimate that over five years each dollar in defense cuts will increase private spending by roughly $1.30 …

Civilian workers at the Navy’s shipyards should be exempt from furloughs because their jobs are critical to the service’s mission, Sean Stackley, assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, said Wednesday. Forcing shipyard workers to take unpaid days off would disrupt the maintenance and modernization schedule for ships, Stackley told the Senate Armed Services’ Seapower Subcommittee. “I think everyone understands that shipyards are a special case in terms of direct impact on readiness,” he said. “The math states there is going to be more than a one-for-one impact if you furlough …

The Navy will not be forced to ground four of its 10 air wings, as it had earlier warned, but instead it will drastically reduce flying hours. Flight hours are being slashed to the lowest level needed to maintain baseline safety standards and efficient aircraft maintenance, Rear Adm. Ted Branch said Monday. The cuts are expected to save the Navy $2 million per month per air wing, said Branch, who is responsible for six East Coast-based aircraft carriers and associated air wings …

Senior defense officials have urged Congress to reverse the deep spending cuts imposed by sequestration during budget and oversight hearings this spring, but neither lawmakers nor the Pentagon are hopeful they can be averted. During a Senate Armed Services hearing on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pointed out one reason why Republican defense hawks so far have failed to gain support from either party for legislation to undo the sequester. “I think one of the reasons that members of both parties are willing to allow this sequestration to proceed is a widespread belief that a profligate Department of Defense is unwilling to rein in runaway costs on underperforming programs …

The strategic review of defense priorities now under way at the Pentagon is not intended to recommend ways its budget can be trimmed to absorb $52 billion in sequester cuts next year, but almost certainly will influence decisions made by both lawmakers and the administration as to what spending categories will bear the most severe cuts. “The choices the president and secretary of defense make in response to the decision points identified in the review in the months thereafter will then inform our 2015 budget submission as well as how we execute our 2014 budget …

Sequestration is holding up 11 DOD Education Activity replacement and renovation projects in the fiscal 2013 budget, according to DODEA. Only one of the projects is in the United States, with the remaining ones spread across Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and South Korea. The U.S. project is at Fort Campbell, Ky.

The House plans to start taking up fiscal 2014 appropriations bills in June, with the defense spending measure possibly reaching the floor by the middle of the month. House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) is expected to get the process started shortly by allocating the $967 billion available for discretionary spending next year among the 12 spending bills, reported CQ. As long as the House and Senate fail to come to agreement over a FY 2014 budget resolution, though, the Democrat-controlled Senate will be crafting spending bills based on a pre-sequester figure of $1.058 trillion …