Posts Tagged ‘deficit reduction’

Senior defense officials have urged Congress to reverse the deep spending cuts imposed by sequestration during budget and oversight hearings this spring, but neither lawmakers nor the Pentagon are hopeful they can be averted. During a Senate Armed Services hearing on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pointed out one reason why Republican defense hawks so far have failed to gain support from either party for legislation to undo the sequester. “I think one of the reasons that members of both parties are willing to allow this sequestration to proceed is a widespread belief that a profligate Department of Defense is unwilling to rein in runaway costs on underperforming programs …

The strategic review of defense priorities now under way at the Pentagon is not intended to recommend ways its budget can be trimmed to absorb $52 billion in sequester cuts next year, but almost certainly will influence decisions made by both lawmakers and the administration as to what spending categories will bear the most severe cuts. “The choices the president and secretary of defense make in response to the decision points identified in the review in the months thereafter will then inform our 2015 budget submission as well as how we execute our 2014 budget …

Sequestration is holding up 11 DOD Education Activity replacement and renovation projects in the fiscal 2013 budget, according to DODEA. Only one of the projects is in the United States, with the remaining ones spread across Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and South Korea. The U.S. project is at Fort Campbell, Ky.

The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee have asked the Pentagon to detail how it would carry out the $52 billion in sequester cuts slated to be imposed next year. The fiscal 2014 budget delivered last month by DOD assumes that the automatic spending cuts will not go into effect. To date, however, there has been no progress on a bipartisan deficit reduction agreement required to avert sequestration …

New Mexico Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich say they will oppose the Air Force’s proposal to close the Operationally Responsive Space Office at Kirtland Air Force Base, a program which employs about 100 military, civilian and contractor personnel. “These cuts are penny-wise and pound-foolish and were explicitly rejected by Congress last year,” Heinrich said Wednesday. “It makes no sense to me that the Department of Defense — in an attempt to lower costs — has again proposed terminating a program that lowers costs in the first place …

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will make a decision shortly on the extent to which civilian workers will be forced to take unpaid days off, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters Wednesday. “We’re in the middle of a $37 billion to $40 billion cut over a six-month period, and we need to look closely at that, but I expect him to make a decision soon …

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 …