Posts Tagged ‘deficit reduction’

The small businesses in communities that support military and civilian workers at installations are bracing for declining revenue as defense officials trim spending on contracts and base support services, and civilian personnel begin one-day-a-week furloughs, reports Air Force Times. “Our business is about 90 percent military,” said a used car dealer located about a half-mile from the main gates at Fort Bragg, N.C. “This is a military town. It is going to affect us all. When there’s a cut, people are scared to spend …

The short-term scramble defense officials are being forced to undertake to squeeze $46 billion out of the Pentagon’s budget over the next seven months soon will be overtaken by a long-term planning exercise to reconsider what priorities the department can afford amid an austere funding climate. The current defense strategy does not take into account the possibility that sequestration would be triggered, DOD Comptroller Robert Hale said Tuesday …

The spending package unveiled Monday by the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund the government through Sept. 30 does not grant DOD any special reprogramming authority to help it cope with the $46 billion cut it will suffer under sequestration. Senate appropriators wanted to provide all federal agencies additional budget flexibility to mitigate the cuts, but were deterred by House Republicans who said they would not go along with that plan …

Furloughs for DOD civilian employees can begin April 26, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale said Monday. DOD notified Congress on Feb. 20 of its intention to impose furloughs, triggering a 45-day waiting period before they can go into effect, reported American Forces Press Service. If lawmakers do not act to replace the $85 billion sequester with alternate spending cuts for fiscal 2013, DOD plans to furlough civilian employees without pay for 22 days — one day a week through Sept. 30. The furlough amounts to a 20 percent cut in pay for affected civilian employees.

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee settled on a continuing resolution Monday to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year that retains the individual spending bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs passed last week by the House. The defense spending bill is critical for the Pentagon as it would restore some of the military’s operations and maintenance funding shortfall that has prompted the services to drastically curtail spending on readiness activities through the end of fiscal 2013 …

Aviation businesses at the Griffith Business and Technology Park, the reuse project at the former base in Upstate New York, are concerned about the impact of the FAA’s plan to shut down the airport’s air traffic control tower next month. Airport operations will be able to continue, but officials are anxious that some potential airport customers, including the military, will be deterred by the lack of a tower …

Soldiers, civilian employees and military dependents based at Fort Riley all will feel the pain of sequestration, Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie, the post’s senior commander, told reporters Friday. “This is not just a national issue; it’s a regional issue and it’s clearly a Fort Riley issue. … The new fiscal environment has and will continue to translate into budget adjustments and that’s clearly going to affect our training, our workforce and our future contracts …

The new defense secretary should undertake “a new and comprehensive review of all aspects of Pentagon strategy, capabilities, and budget in order to create a new long term defense posture,” according to a letter to Chuck Hagel from five former deputy defense secretaries. The letter — from John Deutch, John White, John Hamre, Rudy de Leon and William Lynn III — comes as “the Pentagon now faces crippling uncertainty about its future financial resources to support force structure, readiness and training operations, and for critical modernization programs,” and calls for DOD to engage Congress on possible future defense budget reductions …

The House on Wednesday approved a spending bill to keep the government open through the end of the fiscal year that also provides flexibility to the Pentagon to alleviate some of the funding shortfall in its operations and maintenance account. Most Democrats opposed the bill, saying it locks in the $85 billion sequester and fails to provide similar flexibility to non-defense agencies to mitigate the across-the-board spending cuts …

The Navy will ground four air wings in April and cancel eight ship deployments, Secretary Ray Mabus announced Saturday in the wake of sequestration. The moves will save $10 billion the service needs to cut before Sept. 30 as a result of the across-the-board spending reductions, reported Military Times. Other changes include suspending basic flight training for pilot and flight officer trainees, and slowing depot maintenance for the Marine Corps …