Posts Tagged ‘deficit reduction’

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 …

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell reconstituted the state’s Military Installations and Defense Activities Commission last Friday in response to the start of sequestration which is slated to trim $40-plus billion from defense spending before the end of the fiscal year. The panel will be responsible for assessing the impact on Virginia of the sequester as well as future BRAC activities, and offering recommendations to address those actions …

Senate Democrats said Tuesday they would accept the spending level in the fiscal 2013 continuing resolution introduced by the House, signaling they would not seek to hold up a measure to keep the federal government running over an effort to rescind the $85 billion sequester. While Senate Democrats indicated they would not attempt to alter topline funding in the continuing resolution, they likely will consider shifting some funding among agencies …

Actions required to complete base closures, including cleanup activities, could be delayed as the Army faces a funding shortfall in fiscal 2013 due to the sequester, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Delays in completing documents, permits, policy approvals, contracts and other actions are expected due to civilian furloughs and reductions to the contractor personnel who oversee and carry out the BRAC program, Odierno stated in the written testimony he submitted to the House Military Construction-Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee …

While Air Force officials have said over the past year they have a substantial amount of excess infrastructure that a new base closure round could address, the Army hasn’t been as clear about its interest in a new BRAC round. According to written testimony from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army would benefit from a new round as well, primarily due to reductions in the service’s end strength slated to occur over the next several years …