Senate Republicans will not go along with the Appropriations Committee’s plan to ignore spending caps under sequestration and allocate $1.058 trillion among 12 spending bills. While GOP opposition cannot stop Democrats from approving spending allocations and moving individual appropriations bills in committee, it can stop spending measures from being passed on the chamber floor, reported CQ …
Installation funding is bearing the brunt of the impact from the automatic spending cuts triggered under sequestration in fiscal 2013, forcing the services to skimp on facilities sustainment and slash base operating support budgets, according to the military’s top installation officials. The three services have been deferring virtually all non-emergency maintenance — funded under the sustainment, restoration and modernization account — at their installations. Base operating support has been cut drastically as well, with the Navy slicing that account by more than 50 percent …
The House Appropriations Committee passed a $512.5 billion fiscal 2014 defense spending bill Wednesday despite protests from Democrats that the measure breached spending caps under sequestration at the expense of domestic programs. The measure’s $512.5 billion topline for the base budget would represent a $5.1 billion drop below the FY 2013 enacted level and a $3.4 billion decline from the president’s request. The topline figure is $28.1 billion above the spending cap under sequestration for FY 2014, however, which also includes military construction and the Energy Department’s nuclear program …
House Republicans and Senate Democrats are expected to keep defense spending plans on a course that calls for automatic spending cuts once again as appropriators in both chambers move fiscal 2014 appropriations bills that breach the $498 billion cap on security spending. On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee marks up a defense spending measure that will provide $512.5 billion for DOD. Even without the $10.0 billion the House allocated for military construction in a measure passed last week, the figure breaches the spending limit. The $498 billion cap also needs room for about $18 billion for the Energy Department’s atomic weapons program and $2 billion for Homeland Security …
Last week’s threat by the White House to veto fiscal 2014 spending bills unless House Republicans and Senate Democrats come to a compromise over a broad budget plan is unlikely to accomplish its aim — reaching an agreement that reverses next year’s sequester cuts, according to budget experts. Following President Obama’s veto threat — prompted by the week’s House votes over the military construction-veterans affairs and homeland security spending measures — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused the president of threatening a government shutdown, arguing that negotiations over a grand bargain to reduce the deficit should continue on a separate track from discussions over next year’s spending …
The Pentagon will provide the Senate Armed Services Committee by July 1 its contingency plan for absorbing the fiscal 2014 sequester cuts, Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday. “In the coming weeks we will be examining how we will manage through FY ’14 if we are limited to budget levels other than the president’s budget and taking into consideration the disruptions in fiscal year ’13 …
Installations have taken more than their fair share of spending reductions as a result of sequestration, as facilities sustainment and restoration accounts have absorbed deep cuts this year. The services are deferring all but the most critical repairs, a situation that DOD’s top installations official has said cannot be accommodated over the long-term. At a special briefing during the Defense Communities National Summit in Washington, D.C., next week …
DOD’s top acquisition official warned Navy contractors that they should prepare for the likelihood that deep spending cuts required under sequestration will continue next year. “It’s a reasonable possibility that we will go into 2014 with sequestration still underway,” Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said Monday. “A lot of things we planned on doing we won’t be able to do …
The White House Monday threatened to veto the fiscal 2014 spending bill for military construction and veteran affairs in a statement indicating President Obama wouldn’t sign any appropriations bills until the two parties first reach an agreement over the topline spending level for next year. The Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying the president would veto all spending bills unless they pass Congress “in the context of an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and national security for our economy to compete in the future …
In response to sequestration, the Navy has decided to let the grass grow longer at its installations in southeastern Virginia. The contractor responsible for lawn care at Hampton Roads Navy bases has been instructed to let the grass grow to a foot before mowing, reported the Virginian-Pilot. The policy is expected to save about $1.9 million through the end of September. In one case, Marines stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana mowed a section themselves, but the base commander has said he doesn’t want to see uniformed personnel maintaining the lawn. Maybe they could just borrow the Naval Academy’s mascot, Bill the Goat.