Posts Tagged ‘defense authorization bill’

The House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee went one step further than it did last year in rejecting the Pentagon’s request for two base closure rounds. Rather than simply ignoring this year’s request to hold a BRAC round in 2015, the panel included language in the portion of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill it is scheduled to mark up Thursday precluding the department from using FY 2014 appropriations “to propose, plan for or execute an additional BRAC round …

U.S. Special Operations Command could establish three pilot programs to assess the feasibility of providing family support activities for the immediate family members of personnel assigned to special operations forces, according to the portion of the draft fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill scheduled to be marked up Wednesday by the House Armed Services’ Military Personnel Subcommittee. The measure directs the commander of Special Operations Command to identify family support activities that have a direct and concrete impact on the readiness of special operations forces but that do not duplicate programs being provided by the military departments …

Lawmakers on the six subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee are expected to tackle a number of high-profile issues when then mark up the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill this week — including the military’s handling of sexual assault, women in combat and oversight of drone strikes — but initiatives proposed by the Pentagon to help curb spending likely will be ignored. For starters, the Readiness Subcommittee is almost certain to leave out authorization for a base closure round in 2015 as DOD has requested …

During a Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Wednesday on the Air Force’s budget request, Chairman Dick Durbin (Ill.) acknowledged that he remains skeptical about the BRAC process after witnessing the previous five rounds. “Base closure commissions are supposed to take the politicians out of the process. I think they’ve replaced the politicians with other politicians,” said Durbin, the Senate’s number two Democrat. Durbin said he shared the concern of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, that base closures do not produce sufficient savings …

New Mexico Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich say they will oppose the Air Force’s proposal to close the Operationally Responsive Space Office at Kirtland Air Force Base, a program which employs about 100 military, civilian and contractor personnel. “These cuts are penny-wise and pound-foolish and were explicitly rejected by Congress last year,” Heinrich said Wednesday. “It makes no sense to me that the Department of Defense — in an attempt to lower costs — has again proposed terminating a program that lowers costs in the first place …

The House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee, which is responsible for BRAC policy and other installation-related matters, will mark up its portion of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill on May 23, the full committee announced Thursday. The committee’s other five subcommittees will mark up their sections of the annual policy bill from May 22-23. The full committee will mark up the legislation on June 5. All of the House markups will be open and streamed live on the web …

In addition to citing multiple reasons why it’s not the right time to go ahead with another round of base closures, the leaders of the Senate Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee on Wednesday indicated that the Defense Department needs to complete the review of its European footprint now under way before Congress could approve a domestic base-closing exercise. “I think it’s very difficult for this body to even consider undertaking a domestic BRAC round without a full consideration of which bases could be consolidated and/or closed overseas, given that the interest has always [been] to have domestic capacity foremost,” said the subcommittee’s ranking member, Kelly Ayotte …

The Air Force and more than a dozen of its host communities are embracing the use of partnerships to help trim base operating costs, the service’s top installations official told the Senate Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee Wednesday. “Installation-community partnerships are one approach to reducing operating and service costs while enhancing and retaining quality,” Kathleen Ferguson, acting assistant secretary for installations, environment and logistics, told lawmakers …

For anyone who’s followed Congress’ response to the Obama administration’s request to hold a new base closure round in 2015, Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee must have brought on a sense of déjà vu. Like last month’s hearing on the House side, the panel’s chairman and ranking member each voiced their opposition to a new BRAC round during their opening statements. Subcommittee Chair Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) reminded the DOD witnesses that she opposed the administration’s request last year for two rounds and declared that nothing has changed since then …

The Army could be forced to eliminate at least 100,000 soldiers over the coming decade if sequestration remains in effect through fiscal 2021, the service’s top officials told lawmakers Tuesday. “One hundred thousand is the minimum,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If it goes to full sequestration, it will probably be more than that …