Posts Tagged ‘defense authorization bill’

The White House has said it “strongly objects” to language in the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill limiting the Army to reducing its end strength by 15,000 per year and the Marine Corps to 5,000 per year in FYs 2014 to 2017. The Pentagon proposed cutting the Army by 72,000 and the Marine Corps by 20,000 over that time period. “The timing and pace of the planned reductions to the Army and Marine Corps are tied to anticipated changes in operational demand based on the nation’s current commitments as well as the new defense strategy, which emphasizes a smaller and leaner force …

A bipartisan coalition of 13 senators is asking the Senate Armed Services Committee to require DOD to report on the impact of proposed force structure adjustments before launching such actions. The request follows the dispute triggered by the far-reaching set of force reductions the Air Force included in its fiscal 2013 budget request affecting more than 60 installations. “We have not been provided clear and objective metrics by which the reductions and restructuring proposed at specific installations have been selected …

The White House objected Tuesday to restrictions in the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill precluding the Pentagon from planning for a new base closure round and realigning key missions at three particular Air Force bases. The base closure provision bars the department from proposing, planning for or carrying out an additional BRAC round. The other provisions prohibit the department from shuffling elements of the Air Armament Center at Eglin AFB, Fla., Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom, AFB, Mass. …

House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon forcefully defended the changes his panel made to the administration’s budget request in completing the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta criticized the House for flouting the spending caps imposed by last August’s Budget Control Act. “In your criticism of my proposal for the department’s FY13 authorization bill, you are clearly operating under some misconceptions …

Amendments attached to the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill would preserve key missions at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, and at Hanscom AFB, outside Boston. The amendment sponsored by Ohio Rep. Michael Turner calls for the core functions of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Pat as of Nov. 1, 2011, to be retained. The core functions could be modified only through a subsequent law authorizing base closures or through 10 U.S.C. Sec. 2687, a statute allowing base closures and realignments to be carried out when a BRAC round is not in effect …

The House Armed Services Committee voted to halt the Air Force’s far-reaching plan to pare the force structure of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve that pitted the nation’s governors and lawmakers against the Pentagon. The language to bar the Air Force in the coming fiscal year from transferring or retiring any aircraft in its fleet as of May 31, 2012, was included as an amendment to the FY 2013 defense authorization bill. The committee approved the bill Thursday morning …

If it’s up to the House Armed Services Committee, not only will there not be a new base closure round in the immediate future, but the Pentagon will not be permitted to plan for one. The committee could have simply ignored DOD’s request for BRAC rounds in 2013 and 2015 — as the Readiness Subcommittee did when it marked up its portion of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill on April 27 — but instead it passed an amendment precluding the department from using FY 2013 appropriations “to propose, plan for or execute an additional BRAC round …

Communities slated to lose aircraft and personnel from local Air National Guard bases under the Air Force’s fiscal 2013 budget request would see at least some relief in two measures advancing in the House this week. The FY 2013 defense authorization bill, scheduled to be marked up today by the Armed Services Committee, would restore 2,373 of the 5,100 Guardsmen slots the Air Force proposed eliminating …

Two key defense bills unveiled by House committees Monday take dead aim at the Air Force’s plan to eliminate aircraft and personnel assigned to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves. The draft fiscal 2013 defense spending bill includes $850 million to “pause” retirements and reassignments of Guard and Reserve aircraft until Congress and the Government Accountability Office review cost-benefit analyses of the Air Force’s proposed reductions …

The House Armed Services Committee is expected to adopt an amendment to the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill requiring the Pentagon to provide the panel a list of programs officials would like to see funded but that were not included in the administration’s budget request. The amendment, to be introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter Wednesday during the committee’s markup, comes as the service chiefs for the first time in years did not submit “wish lists” to Congress of desired programs that were left out of the department’s FY 2013 budget request …