A final vote in the Senate on a fiscal 2013 continuing resolution is scheduled to take place Thursday and likely would be followed by a vote by the House, allowing Congress to avert the possibility of a government shutdown before the start of its recess. Once the Senate passes the stopgap spending measure needed to keep the government running for the last six months of the fiscal year, the House is poised to approve it as well …
The Senate voted on Monday to limit debate on a fiscal 2013 continuing resolution needed to avert a government shutdown after March 27, setting up a final vote on the measure as early as Tuesday. The motion to cut off debate came as the chamber was unable to reach an agreement to trim the number of proposed amendments to be debated on the floor. Lawmakers had introduced almost 100 …
While the Pentagon remains committed to supporting military personnel and their families, across-the-board spending reductions and the ongoing continuing resolution funding DOD in fiscal 2013 will diminish the department’s ability to maintain the level of service it provides and to advance new initiatives, senior DOD officials told the House Armed Services’ Military Personnel Subcommittee Wednesday. “Sequestration and CR will inevitably degrade services and impede progress in most of these programs …
The small businesses in communities that support military and civilian workers at installations are bracing for declining revenue as defense officials trim spending on contracts and base support services, and civilian personnel begin one-day-a-week furloughs, reports Air Force Times. “Our business is about 90 percent military,” said a used car dealer located about a half-mile from the main gates at Fort Bragg, N.C. “This is a military town. It is going to affect us all. When there’s a cut, people are scared to spend …
The short-term scramble defense officials are being forced to undertake to squeeze $46 billion out of the Pentagon’s budget over the next seven months soon will be overtaken by a long-term planning exercise to reconsider what priorities the department can afford amid an austere funding climate. The current defense strategy does not take into account the possibility that sequestration would be triggered, DOD Comptroller Robert Hale said Tuesday …
The spending package unveiled Monday by the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund the government through Sept. 30 does not grant DOD any special reprogramming authority to help it cope with the $46 billion cut it will suffer under sequestration. Senate appropriators wanted to provide all federal agencies additional budget flexibility to mitigate the cuts, but were deterred by House Republicans who said they would not go along with that plan …
Furloughs for DOD civilian employees can begin April 26, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale said Monday. DOD notified Congress on Feb. 20 of its intention to impose furloughs, triggering a 45-day waiting period before they can go into effect, reported American Forces Press Service. If lawmakers do not act to replace the $85 billion sequester with alternate spending cuts for fiscal 2013, DOD plans to furlough civilian employees without pay for 22 days — one day a week through Sept. 30. The furlough amounts to a 20 percent cut in pay for affected civilian employees.
Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee settled on a continuing resolution Monday to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year that retains the individual spending bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs passed last week by the House. The defense spending bill is critical for the Pentagon as it would restore some of the military’s operations and maintenance funding shortfall that has prompted the services to drastically curtail spending on readiness activities through the end of fiscal 2013 …
The Air Force plans to defer or cancel $273 million in facility sustainment, restoration and modernization projects before the end of the fiscal year in response to sequestration, according to a new briefing from the service. The hardest hit states include Texas, Oklahoma and Florida, which stand to lose more than $20 million each in FSRM funding at installations they host. Six other states — California, North Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, South Carolina and Maryland — each will lose between $10 million and $20 million in FSRM support …
Soldiers, civilian employees and military dependents based at Fort Riley all will feel the pain of sequestration, Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie, the post’s senior commander, told reporters Friday. “This is not just a national issue; it’s a regional issue and it’s clearly a Fort Riley issue. … The new fiscal environment has and will continue to translate into budget adjustments and that’s clearly going to affect our training, our workforce and our future contracts …