Posts Tagged ‘defense budget’

The Obama administration’s decision to deliver a fiscal 2014 budget request that ignores the $52 billion sequester cut slated to be imposed on defense spending next year leaves it uncertain how the department’s new budget will be determined. The best case scenario is that Congress and the White House reach a long-term deficit reduction agreement — perhaps as part of the negotiations needed to lift the nation’s debt ceiling before the end of the summer — that replaces the automatic spending cuts …

Defense officials are considering cutting the number of unpaid furlough days civilian employees will be forced to take to as few as seven, after cutting the number of unpaid days to 14 last month. No decision has been made yet, and it is possible the Pentagon could drop the furloughs entirely …

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing Friday that he is a “strong supporter” of another round of BRAC, making him the rare lawmaker who has publicly backed the Pentagon’s request to hold a new round in 2015. DOD needs to pare down its infrastructure following a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and to adjust to a drop in defense spending, Smith said during a committee hearing on the Air Force’s fiscal 2014 budget request …

At a House hearing Friday primarily focused on the Pentagon’s request to hold a round of base closures in 2015, lawmakers were not particularly vociferous in their opposition to BRAC, but the DOD witnesses still found themselves needing to convince a skeptical appropriations subcommittee about the rationale for a new round. In characterizing the extent to which the military has spare capacity at its installations, Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, painted the most vivid portrait when she described her service’s reliance on attrition to trim its end strength by 80,000 soldiers by 2017 …

Scheduled ship repairs that had been suspended due to sequestration now will go ahead, the Navy’s top budget official said Wednesday. The Navy had said that contracts for 11 ships with private shipyards would be cancelled as the Navy looked for ways to mitigate the need to slash $4.6 billion in spending by Sept. 30, reported the Virginian Pilot. Nine ships scheduled for overhaul in Hampton Roads, Va., will be repaired in coming months, and most maintenance at other shipyards in the United States and overseas will occur as well, Rear Adm. Joseph Mulloy, deputy secretary for the budget, told reporters …

Holding a BRAC round isn’t the only strategy the Defense Department is pursuing to find savings from underused facilities. By the end of the year, officials expect to complete a plan that will recommend ways “to reduce underutilization” at military hospitals and clinics, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told lawmakers Thursday during a hearing on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request …

While describing the balancing act officials strived for while crafting the service’s fiscal 2014 budget request, the Air Force’s top budget official made no secret that the service sees a new base closure round as an essential means to pare its excess capacity. “We also want to foot stomp that we’re very much in favor of BRAC,” Maj. Gen. Edward Bolton Jr., deputy assistant secretary for budget, told reporters …

In his first congressional hearing since being confirmed, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday attempted to make the case to hold a BRAC round in 2015 before a number of critics in the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee, pressed Hagel as to whether now is the right time to pursue base closures, given the challenges facing the military, including sequestration, the drawdown in Afghanistan and the pivot toward Asia …

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request for $526.6 billion represents a healthy 8 percent increase over current year funding, but because it ignores the reality of sequestration it is unlikely to be realized. Instead, the White House has proposed a set of tax increases and spending cuts to reverse sequestration and the $500 billion in automatic defense cuts it requires. DOD still would need to absorb $150 billion in spending reductions over the coming decade, but those cuts would be deferred until after FY 2018 …

Along with requesting a new base closure round, the Pentagon is proposing further cuts in its civilian workforce as part of new money-saving initiatives included in its fiscal 2014 budget request. The two actions are intertwined, as DOD Comptroller Robert Hale explained to reporters Wednesday. The proposed restructuring of the civilian workforce could result in a 5 to 6 percent reduction from fiscal 2013 to 2018 …