Posts Tagged ‘defense budget’

Senate Republicans are considering a handful of alternatives to nullify $85 billion in government-wide spending reductions scheduled to go into effect March 1, with the possibility of offering federal agencies greater flexibility in carrying out the cuts a much-discussed option. Other approaches include replacing the cuts with alternative ones in discretionary and mandatory spending, or by trimming the federal workforce …

With the March 1 deadline triggering sequestration less than two weeks away — and falling only four days after lawmakers return to Capitol Hill from this week’s recess — it’s almost inevitable that the Pentagon will need to start implementing its share of the mechanism’s $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts. And while many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have tried to raise the alarm over the devastating effects they will have on the nation’s military readiness, the deep chasm between the two parties over how to replace the cuts makes a deal an iffy proposition. More likely, perhaps, would be a measure that would adjust the arbitrary nature of the spending reductions required under sequestration and offer DOD flexibility in applying them …

The deputy commander for Camp Lejeune assured local officials attending a community breakfast Tuesday that the base on the coast of North Carolina is too vital to the Marine Corps’ mission to be closed in a future BRAC round. “Camp Lejeune is [staying],” said Col. Darrell Thacker, deputy commander for Marine Corps Installations East-Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. “But as we transition from 202,000 Marines down to 182,000 Marines, there will be impacts on the base …

The deep budget cuts imposed under sequestration would severely undermine the readiness of the Air Force, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told lawmakers this week. “Roughly two-thirds of our active-duty combat Air Force units will curtail home station training, beginning in March, and will drop below acceptable readiness levels by mid-May,” Welsh told the Senate Armed Services Committee …

Defense spending would be reduced by $27.5 billion over a seven-year period, rather than $40-plus billion all in fiscal 2013, under the plan Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) outlined Thursday to replace the $85 billion in government-wide spending cuts slated to go into effect March 1. Half of the $110 billion plan would be made up of spending reductions, with the other $27.5 billion in cuts coming from the elimination of direct subsidy payments to farmers …

Despite attempting to address spending cuts that will have “an irreversible and debilitating impact on the Navy’s readiness through at least 2014,” the chief of naval operations said Wednesday he would fight to preserve funding for family readiness and wellness programs. “Family programs are important,” said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, reported Navy public affairs. “I do not want those constrained.”

The Defense Department’s senior leadership took some unexpected flak from lawmakers Wednesday during what was expected to be the second of two congressional hearings this week on the readiness crisis stemming from the deep spending cuts imposed under sequestration. As they did Tuesday, the Pentagon’s top military officers painted a gloomy picture of sequestration’s impact on the military. The department would be forced to absorb $46 billion in automatic cuts during fiscal 2013, and up to $500 billion in spending reductions through FY 2021 …

A continuing resolution being put together in the House is expected to offer the Defense Department the flexibility to move funds across accounts as a way to help officials deal with the severe funding constraints caused by sequestration. The bill, which would fund the federal government past March 27, largely would extend fiscal 2012 spending laws, but also would include appropriations bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs. The measure would provide the Pentagon some flexibility to allocate funds where they are needed and make other changes that normally would be restricted under a stopgap spending bill …

The Pentagon’s senior military officers rendered a dire portrait of how automatic spending cuts combined with operating under a continuing resolution for the remainder of fiscal 2013 would harm the nation’s military, during their testimony Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. If the automatic defense cuts — which would approach $500 billion through FY 2021 — go ahead, the Army will curtail training for 80 percent of its ground forces and across all of its specialties, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said. The service already has imposed a civilian hiring freeze and will terminate an estimated 3,100 temporary and term employees …

With both parties separated by a wide chasm over how to turn off $85 billion in government-wide spending cuts slated to go into effect in a little more than two weeks, the best outcome at this point may be a bipartisan deal reached sometime in March. “I think what’s going to happen is the sequester will take effect, and then the serious negotiations will probably start,” said Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn …