Posts Tagged ‘Congress/DOD’

The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee have asked the Pentagon to detail how it would carry out the $52 billion in sequester cuts slated to be imposed next year. The fiscal 2014 budget delivered last month by DOD assumes that the automatic spending cuts will not go into effect. To date, however, there has been no progress on a bipartisan deficit reduction agreement required to avert sequestration …

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 …

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 …

A House Oversight subcommittee used the setting of a vacant warehouse in Southeast Washington less than a mile away from Capitol Hill on Thursday to hold the latest in a series of hearings highlighting the federal government’s slow pace in disposing of unneeded properties. The General Services Administration-owned warehouse has been empty since September 2009 and costs the government $70,000 a year to maintain. “It’s just a pattern of not being able to make decisions, and it’s remarkable given that we’re in the nation’s capital …

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 …

Public universities would be required to charge, at most, in-state tuition to all veterans regardless of whether they are residents, under legislation approved Thursday by the House Veterans’ Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee. H.R. 357 — introduced by the Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and ranking member Mike Michaud (D-Maine) — is intended to expand the educational choices available to veterans taking advantage of their benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill …

The House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee, which is responsible for BRAC policy and other installation-related matters, will mark up its portion of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill on May 23, the full committee announced Thursday. The committee’s other five subcommittees will mark up their sections of the annual policy bill from May 22-23. The full committee will mark up the legislation on June 5. All of the House markups will be open and streamed live on the web …

House Appropriations Chair Harold Rogers [...]

In addition to citing multiple reasons why it’s not the right time to go ahead with another round of base closures, the leaders of the Senate Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee on Wednesday indicated that the Defense Department needs to complete the review of its European footprint now under way before Congress could approve a domestic base-closing exercise. “I think it’s very difficult for this body to even consider undertaking a domestic BRAC round without a full consideration of which bases could be consolidated and/or closed overseas, given that the interest has always [been] to have domestic capacity foremost,” said the subcommittee’s ranking member, Kelly Ayotte …