Posts Tagged ‘defense budget’

House appropriators fully support the administration’s fiscal 2014 request to spend $798 million for upgrades at 17 DOD Education Activity schools located overseas and within the U.S., but at the same time they want to make sure the department doesn’t invest in facilities at installations slated to be downsized. “[The committee] is concerned that the changes that are occurring across the Department of Defense associated with force structure reductions may impact whether funding is needed at an installation or if it is determined not to be an enduring installation …

Many federal agencies are likely to be funded through a continuing resolution in fiscal 2014 because of the sharp differences between spending levels the two chambers are using to draft individual appropriations measures. On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committees approved topline figures for each of the 12 spending bills totaling $967 billion. At the same time, Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has said her committee would be moving bills based on a $1.058 billion topline, a figure which ignores the spending caps triggered under sequestration …

With the Army expected to decide shortly how it will rebalance its force structure as it reduces its active-duty end strength by 72,000 soldiers, House appropriators are concerned the service may commit to spending money on building new facilities after it already spent billions of dollars since 2005 on military construction to accommodate the population shifts generated by the last BRAC round. “Army planning to potentially add combat maneuver battalions and supporting units at certain installations in support of Army 2020 may result in a sizeable obligation to the Army’s budget at the same time the Army is trying to reduce the size of its force structure …

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 …

In a process the Air Force calls “back-casting,” budget officials plan to take the service’s budget priorities for fiscal 2015 and apply them to funding levels in FY 2013 and 2014 in an effort to eliminate spending that no longer is needed. Officials believe the approach will help to smooth the transition to successive budget requests, as well as help the service manage sequestration, reported InsideDefense.com.

Key components of military strength, including force structure, acquisition programs and missions, likely would bear the brunt of cutbacks under a range of budget scenarios expected to be offered following a review of defense strategy now underway at the Pentagon. Defense officials would prefer to include base closures and changes to military compensation as ways to slash the budget over the next eight years, but they realize Congress probably won’t endorse those initiatives …

The draft spending allocations for fiscal 2014 released last week by the House Appropriations Committee protect spending on defense, military construction-veterans affairs and homeland security at the expense of domestic programs. The allocations provide a total of $625 billion in FY 2014 for those three national security funding measures, representing a cut of only $4 billion — or less than one percent — from the current enacted level …

The two spending bills that fund the Pentagon in fiscal 2014 would be shielded from the dramatic cuts that would be imposed on domestic agencies under the draft allocations for appropriations bills released Thursday by the House Appropriations Committee. The committee would allocate $512.5 billion for defense spending next year, representing a moderate cut from the $526.6 billion request submitted last month by the White House …

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s announcement Tuesday that civilian employees would be forced to take 11 days of unpaid leave during the last three months of the fiscal year provided exceptions for significant segments of the workforce, including workers at DOD schools and the Navy’s four public shipyards. About 11,000 teachers, aides and other workers at DOD Education Activity schools will be limited to a maximum of five days of furloughs, which will be taken at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year …

Many of the Pentagon’s 800,000 civilian workers will be forced to take 11 days of unpaid leave by Sept. 30, three fewer days than employees had been expecting, after officials determined that the ability to reprogram funds into DOD’s operations and maintenance accounts earlier this year provided sufficient flexibility to reduce the number of furlough days. Employees will take one furlough day per week beginning July 8, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday during a town hall meeting at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Va. …