Posts Tagged ‘Congress/DOD’

A bipartisan group of eight senators will hold a secret retreat next week to craft a deficit reduction framework to replace across-the-board spending reductions and pay for expiring Bush-era tax cuts. The original Gang of Six — Sens. Mark Warner, Dick Durbin, Kent Conrad, Saxby Chambliss, Mike Crapo and Tom Coburn — met in the summer of 2011 to address the debt ceiling crisis but was unable to strike a deal. Next week’s retreat, to be hosted by Warner, will add two new faces, Sens. Lamar Alexander and Michael Bennet …

Spending on national security would drop by $64.2 billion in fiscal 2013 and $672.5 billion over 10 years under a deficit reduction plan proposed by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense on Monday. Both of those figures are greater than the cuts the defense budget would be forced to absorb currently under sequestration, which likely dooms the plan’s prospects for gaining momentum on Capitol Hill …

Pentagon officials are hopeful they are close to striking a deal with the Senate to resume funding construction projects on Guam needed to accommodate the relocation of thousands of Marines from Okinawa. Since the July release of a congressionally mandated assessment of the nation’s realignment plans for the Asia-Pacific region, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has reached out to several members of Congress to discuss lawmakers’ outstanding concerns regarding the realignment …

The military services should continue normal spending and operations as if sequestration will not occur starting on Jan. 2, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told DOD managers and office heads last week. Carter’s memo dated Sept. 25 directs managers “to continue the defense mission under current laws and policies, without taking steps that assume sequestration will occur,” reported Bloomberg News. Defense programs and activities shouldn’t suffer the harmful effects of the automatic spending cuts as long as there still is a chance they can be avoided, according to the memo …

Becoming increasingly impatient as the imposition of automatic spending reductions draws closer, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters Thursday that he would accept any legislation that defers looming defense cuts. “I’ll take whatever the hell deal they can make right now to deal with sequestration,” Panetta said when asked if he would settle for a short-term measure that at least postpones sequestration in an attempt to give lawmakers more time to avert the potential for up to $500 billion in defense cuts through FY 2021 …

A hiring freeze and furloughs of Defense Department civilians are inevitable if Congress does not reverse sequestration, the Pentagon’s budget chief said this week. He also said DOD may have more flexibility to prioritize the cuts than originally thought.

The across-the-board cuts and long furlough process will “adversely affect our missions” and keep the Pentagon from spending as much on TRICARE and family housing maintenance, Robert Hale, undersecretary of Defense and chief financial officer, said at a Government Executive event…

Eight senators are negotiating a compromise deal to address the “fiscal cliff” that will hit in January when across-the-board spending cuts go into effect and Bush-era tax cuts expire, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“There’s some serious stuff going on,” Reid said this week, according to CQ…

Officials from each of the services’ medical organizations hailed the opening of a new consolidated headquarters in Northern Virginia last week, predicting the new facility would usher in a new era in military medicine by strengthening ties between the services and allowing for joint decision making. The Sept. 18 ribbon-cutting ceremony also marked the completion of the last major BRAC recommendation from the 2005 round. The consolidation of medical command headquarters in the Washington, D.C., area was one of two major recommendations that DOD had not finished implementing as of late last year …

The lack of both a full-year appropriations bill and a defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2013 will force the Pentagon to resort to inefficient workarounds to keep the department running in the coming months, DOD Comptroller Robert Hale said Tuesday. “We’re looking at workarounds, but they’re challenging …

In a recent post on the Navy’s blog, Adm. Mark Ferguson, vice chief of naval operations, said the most immediate impact of automatic defense cuts would be to the service’s operations and maintenance accounts, with a reduction of more than $4 billion in fiscal 2013. Overall, the government-wide cuts would reduce Navy spending by $12 billion in the coming year if they go into effect starting in January. Trimming spending on operations and maintenance will result in reduced flying hours for Navy aircrews, fewer underway training days for its ships and submarines, and a reduction in maintenance for the fleet …