Posts Tagged ‘deficit reduction’

The Army is spending millions of dollars on installations that are “simply unusable” as the cost of upkeep for antiquated facilities climbs exorbitantly, Secretary John McHugh told reporters Tuesday. As the Army struggles to absorb deep spending cuts, eliminating unneeded installations would provide it with funds that could be used elsewhere. McHugh told reporters that he supports the Pentagon’s request to hold a BRAC round in 2015, reported the Hill. The secretary acknowledged the political perils that await anyone who supports another round of base closures and agreed that shuttering a large post could be harmful to the local economy. But the “highly effective use” of BRAC could generate a significant savings for DOD, he said.

If Congress and the White House fail to reach a deficit reduction deal that replaces automatic spending cuts starting in fiscal 2014, the Pentagon would consider crafting an alternate budget, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday. Last month, the Obama administration sent Congress a $526.6 billion base budget for next year that does not reflect the $52 billion reduction in defense spending triggered under sequestration in FY 2014 …

Sequestration has already made a dent in local economies throughout Arizona, where 43,000 workers are employed by the defense industry, according to government officials. Government and business leaders are most concerned about the impact on smaller companies, the second- and third-tier companies in the defense supply chain, reported Politico. One challenge for officials is that there is no warning when smaller suppliers are affected by production cutbacks at larger manufacturers …

To date, the Pentagon has said all of its civilian employees will share the burden of taking unpaid days off on an equal basis, but at least one of the services has identified alternate budget cuts it could carry out that would obviate the need for civilian furloughs. As a result, defense officials face pressure to reconsider their plans, reports the Washington Post. DOD’s latest plan calls for up to 800,000 civilians to take 14 furlough days, although the department is figuring out if could reduce that number and still absorb the $41 billion sequester cut imposed this year …

The listening sessions the Army has held over the past month at 29 installations before it decides how to rebalance its force structure have provided local officials an opportunity to highlight the contributions their communities have made to support the service. The Watertown, N.Y., region, for example, has expanded its local hospital to support Fort Drum, which does not have a medical center. The community has helped in other ways as well, including adding housing and hotel capacity, and constructing a new connector road to Fort Drum after the post added a brigade combat team in 2007 …

Since the beginning of April, the Army has held listening sessions at more than two dozen installations to gather input from community and business leaders about the potential economic impacts of the service’s plan to trim its active-duty end strength by 72,000 soldiers by fiscal 2020, attracting hundreds of people at some locations. Perhaps no host community has done a better job of mobilizing support for its Army post than Leesville and other central Louisiana towns neighboring Fort Polk. Not only did the community draw a standing-room-only crowd to the meeting place, but residents lined the streets of downtown Leesville waving signs and flags to create a parade-like atmosphere as Army officials arrived …

The failure of the White House and congressional Democrats to leverage the anger over flight delays caused by the furlough of air traffic controllers into a government-wide annulment of this year’s sequester cuts provides strong proof that the automatic spending cuts will not be cancelled before the fiscal year is completed. For Republicans, the legislation quickly passed last week to end the furlough of controllers for the rest of fiscal 2013 represented a victory in the battle over sequestration, one reinforcing their stance that the $85 billion in cuts should remain in place for the year …

House Appropriations Chair Harold Rogers [...]

Until a deal is reached between Democrats and Republicans over topline discretionary spending for fiscal 2014, the House may consider only a small handful of individual spending bills, including defense and military construction-veterans affairs. As things stand now, House appropriators favor a government-wide spending level of $967 billion for next year, which reflects an assumption that the spending caps under sequestration will remain in effect. Senate Democrats, on the other hand, plan to set fiscal 2014 discretionary spending at the pre-sequester level of $1.058 trillion, a $91 billion difference …

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 …