Posts Tagged ‘Congress/DOD’

The House measure to fund the federal government beyond March 27 most likely will include language allowing the Navy to resume much of the ship repair work it recently has cancelled due the fiscal uncertainty stemming from sequestration and the likelihood the service is funded by a continuing resolution for the remainder of fiscal 2013, Rep. Randy Forbes said Monday. Forbes said he was confident “anomalies” in the stopgap measure would allow Navy officials to shift existing funds into accounts that would cover the maintenance work …

The House Appropriations Committee is expected shortly to unveil its plan to fund the federal government beyond March 27 through a combination of a new continuing resolution along with appropriations bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs. The stopgap measure for the second half of fiscal 2013 would not offer additional spending for the Pentagon but possibly would provide officials flexibility to allocate funds where they are needed and make other changes that normally would be restricted under a continuing resolution …

While President Obama continues his campaign to pressure Republican leaders to accept some tax increases to offset the sequester, the Senate this week will take up competing plans to deal with the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to go into effect Friday. Under the plan introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), defense spending would be reduced by $27.5 billion over a seven-year period starting in fiscal 2015, rather than by $43 billion this year, as it would if sequestration goes forward …

Even as the likelihood that Congress fails to nullify deep spending reductions before they go into effect March 1 draws ever closer, defense officials will not start planning for the possibility that the cuts slated to be imposed next year could be realized as well. The Office of Management and Budget still is directing agencies not to plan for the portion of the sequester set to go into effect in fiscal 2014, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told reporters Wednesday …

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) was named chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee on Tuesday, giving the first-term senator responsibility for legislation dealing with BRAC and other issues related to installations. The announcement also means that lawmakers from New Hampshire will serve as the chairman and senior Republican on the Readiness subcommittee. Kelly Ayotte (R) is the subcommittee’s ranking member …

The Pentagon did not contribute to the fiscal crisis it currently is facing, DOD Press Secretary George Little said Monday, responding to criticism from two House Republicans that officials could have helped prevent $500 billion in defense cuts from going into effect by revealing earlier the department’s plans for addressing the potential shortfall in spending. “The onus is on the Congress of the United States,” Little told reporters. The department’s senior leaders “have been clear for nearly a year and a half” on the devastating impact of sequestration …

Senate Republicans are considering a handful of alternatives to nullify $85 billion in government-wide spending reductions scheduled to go into effect March 1, with the possibility of offering federal agencies greater flexibility in carrying out the cuts a much-discussed option. Other approaches include replacing the cuts with alternative ones in discretionary and mandatory spending, or by trimming the federal workforce …

With the March 1 deadline triggering sequestration less than two weeks away — and falling only four days after lawmakers return to Capitol Hill from this week’s recess — it’s almost inevitable that the Pentagon will need to start implementing its share of the mechanism’s $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts. And while many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have tried to raise the alarm over the devastating effects they will have on the nation’s military readiness, the deep chasm between the two parties over how to replace the cuts makes a deal an iffy proposition. More likely, perhaps, would be a measure that would adjust the arbitrary nature of the spending reductions required under sequestration and offer DOD flexibility in applying them …

The deep budget cuts imposed under sequestration would severely undermine the readiness of the Air Force, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told lawmakers this week. “Roughly two-thirds of our active-duty combat Air Force units will curtail home station training, beginning in March, and will drop below acceptable readiness levels by mid-May,” Welsh told the Senate Armed Services Committee …

Senate Republicans succeeded in postponing a final up-or-down vote on former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) to become the next defense secretary when they defeated Democrats’ effort Thursday to end debate on his nomination. Four Republicans joined the Democrats to support Hagel’s nomination, but the majority party still was unable to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to approve cloture and end the apparent filibuster …