Installation support will be forced to endure severe cuts under sequestration, affecting routine maintenance, construction and some military family programs, according to a roundtable of senior Army officials held Wednesday. The Army has slashed day-to-day spending for installation support to free up funds for other priorities, such as training and equipping troops destined for Afghanistan …
Spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs on disability benefits, veterans education and health care is exempt from across-the-board cuts that will imposed under sequestration, but plenty of other federal programs that support veterans, especially those within the Pentagon, are not. Veterans likely will find themselves most vulnerable to cutbacks in military spending for health care and related programs …
Senate Republicans settled Wednesday on a plan to address sequestration that will compete with a Democratic one, but both measures are expected to fail on the Senate floor today. After considering a number of ways to mitigate $85 billion in across-the-board spending reductions slated to go into effect starting Friday, Republican lawmakers opted for a plan allowing President Obama to replace those fiscal 2013 cuts with an alternate plan trimming outlays by $82.5 billion through FY 2018 …
Local school districts serving substantial numbers of military children would face funding cuts immediately after sequestration is triggered Friday, confronting them with a dilemma as to how to make up a shortfall of tens of millions dollars before the school year ends in the spring, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters Wednesday at a White House briefing. Cuts to school systems that rely on the Impact Aid program — including those enrolling children of service members who live on or near military installations and children who live on Indian reservations — would total $60 million in the current fiscal year …
Teachers at DOD schools anticipate a shortened school year or four-day work weeks if sequestration is triggered and the DOD Education Activity is forced to furlough teachers and other school employees. So far, the DOD Education Activity has not said how it would cope with the fiscal crisis the department is facing, reported Stars and Stripes. Last month, officials said civilian employees would need to take up to 22 days of unpaid furlough between April and the end of the fiscal year if lawmakers fail to avert the $40-plus billion in defense cuts scheduled to go into effect Friday. One response under consideration is cutting 10 to 12 days from the current school year and additional days from the school year beginning next fall, according to the story. About 84,000 children are enrolled in DOD schools.
The Pentagon’s top officials have warned over the past year that if DOD is forced to identify up to $500 billion in further spending reductions through fiscal 2021, they would need to revisit the newly developed defense strategy guiding the military’s priorities. If sequestration hits on Friday, though, as it is widely expected to, the department will be fully occupied trying to find ways to accommodate about $46 billion in automatic cuts over the next seven months …
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to ask Congress to allow DOD to fund its programs at the levels called for in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill when it puts together the continuing resolution needed to fund the government after March 27. The authority to reprogram funds would allow the Pentagon to make up the tremendous shortfall in its operations and maintenance accounts that is forcing the services to curtail training and equipment maintenance planned for the remainder of FY 2013 …
The White House released new documents over the weekend depicting the state-by-state impacts of defense and domestic cuts stemming from sequestration in its latest move to pressure Republican leaders to accept some tax increases as part of a deal to avert across-the-board spending reductions scheduled to be carried out starting on Friday. Based on temporary furloughs of DOD civilian workers, Virginia would be hurt the most with 90,000 employees expected to lose up to 22 days of work over the last seven months of fiscal 2013 …
The Senate is moving toward separate votes Thursday on competing plans to replace, or at least mitigate, $85 billion in automatic spending reductions set to take effect Friday. Neither is likely to gain the required 60 votes for passage, though, leaving the March 27 deadline for extending fiscal 2013 funding for the federal government as the real milestone for Congress to address the sequester …
Communities, small businesses, contractors and military families are among those who will be affected by spending cuts scheduled to go into effect at the end of the week, according to a panel of experts and officials who briefed congressional staff Monday. The briefing was organized by the Association of Defense Communities and co-hosted by Reps. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) and Sam Farr (D-Calif.), who are re-forming the Defense Communities Caucus for the current Congress …