Posts Tagged ‘Congress/DOD’

As in past years, the two chambers’ Appropriations committees will make a good-faith effort to pass individual spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year, but there still is a strong likelihood that political realities will force lawmakers to rely on continuing resolutions to fund the government. The primary wrinkle this year will be determining the topline for discretionary spending in fiscal 2014. That cap is $1.058 trillion under recent budget control laws, but sequestration would reduce that figure to about $966 billion in FY 2014 …

To overcome lawmakers’ resistance to approving a new round of base closures, the Pentagon should identify from the outset what installations it is considering closing or realigning, Todd Harrison, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told reporters Friday. “DOD needs to come at Congress with more specific plans,” Harrison said, reported Foreign Policy. What’s needed is a detailed plan mapped down to the congressional district. The vast majority of members of Congress won’t be hurt …

The Department of Veterans Affairs would receive a 4 percent boost in discretionary funding under President Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget request, a reflection of his commitment to deal with the growing backlog of veterans’ claims and help returning service members transition to civilian life, according to White House and VA officials. “The president has made clear that this is a national priority,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said at briefing Friday with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki …

While many lawmakers have cited the upfront costs associated with carrying out base closures as an argument against authorizing a new BRAC round at a time when the Pentagon is being forced to slash spending, one defense analyst believes shuttering excess facilities is one key structural reform the military needs to implement to rein in its budget. “No business in America would be satisfied operating for a decade with 21 percent excess facilities,” said Todd Harrison, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments …

For the second time in a month, a House subcommittee is scheduled to hear testimony from the Pentagon’s top installation officials about the need for a new BRAC round. But unlike the hearing held last month by the House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee, next week the House Appropriations’ Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee will have an opportunity to hear from DOD witnesses after the White House has unveiled its fiscal 2014 budget proposal …

In his first major policy speech since taking office, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday warned of the need for making fundamental changes in overhead, personnel and acquisition costs as the Pentagon faces the prospect of cutting up to $1 trillion in projected spending over the coming decade. “This effort will by necessity consider big choices that could lead to fundamental change and a further prioritization of the use of our resources …

Despite the need to identify $50-plus billion in fiscal 2014 savings — barring a long-term deficit reduction deal that replaces the sequester — the Obama administration and Congress likely will put off discussing ways to trim the defense budget until late in the process for crafting spending bills for the department. The White House already has said the FY 2014 budget request it sends to Congress next week will ignore sequestration, which would pare defense spending by 9.9 percent next year …

If sequestration continues into fiscal 2014 and beyond, the Pentagon will not rely on furloughs of civilian employees to find savings, but rather will explore “other options,” DOD Comptroller Robert Hale said Monday. “They may not be pleasant, and they may force us into some difficult choices. But we definitely don’t want to repeat what we’re doing now …

The Air Force on Thursday released its plan to carry out the force structure changes mandated by the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill. The changes primarily reflect the compromise plan for eliminating and retiring aircraft from the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve that the Air Force proposed last November after lawmakers and governors rejected the service’s original proposal for scaling down its force structure …

More than 700,000 civilian workers at DOD will be forced to take 14 days of unpaid leave in fiscal 2013, eight fewer days than officials had been expecting, as a result of the spending measure President Obama signed into law on Tuesday. By shifting $10 billion into the Pentagon’s operations and maintenance accounts, the FY 2013 spending bill alleviated a shortfall in the account that pays for civilian salaries, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters on Thursday …