POLICY July 10, 2013; Updated 3:55 p.m. Hagel Sketches Out Austerity Scenario for Pentagon Under Budget Caps By Megan Scully, CQ Roll Call Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday warned lawmakers that the Defense Department would have to lay off civilian workers, scale back maintenance and training and make deep cuts to many of its modernization accounts if budget caps for fiscal 2014 remain in place. In a memo to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hagel provided lawmakers with a “high-level summary” of the department’s fiscal contingency plans, which were the product of a senior review that the Defense secretary ordered earlier this year. With less than three months until the start of the new fiscal year, department officials are weighing their options should the department have to live within the budget caps, which would mark a $52 billion cut to the Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal 2014. “I strongly oppose cuts of that magnitude because, if they remain in place, for FY 2014 and beyond, the size, readiness and technological superiority of our military will be reduced, placing at much greater risk the country’s ability to meet our current national security commitments,” Hagel wrote in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The summary does not spell out specific cuts to military programs and other accounts. But assuming the Pentagon has the flexibility to administer the cuts, rather than apply them indiscriminately, reductions of 15 to 20 percent in the Pentagon’s investment accounts would be common. Hundreds of individual programs, both large and small, would be cut significantly, leading the Pentagon to buy fewer ships, planes, ground vehicles, satellites and other equipment, Hagel warned. To eke out savings in its day-to-day operational costs, the Defense Department would have to continue civilian hiring freezes and significantly curtail planned maintenance of its facilities, “sometimes leaving the department with too few people to perform the work or with employees working in substandard conditions,” Hagel wrote. In order to avoid a second year of furloughs, Hagel said the department would have to lay off some of its civilian workforce. He did not detail how many civilians could be let go. Even with those actions, Hagel said, the military’s training and overall readiness levels would “at best remain constant at current low levels and, in some cases, would continue to decline.” Training Cutbacks A $52 billion cut to the department’s fiscal 2014 proposal means that two Navy air wings might not be able to achieve their full flight hours, Hagel said. The Army, meanwhile, might have to cancel combat training events, and the Air Force, which this year had to stop all flying at about a third of its combat-coded active-duty squadrons, would have to significantly reduce training at more than half of its flying units. Such reductions in training could increase flying accidents, hurt morale and leave the country “without the ready forces to fight effectively,” Hagel wrote. The military would be hard-pressed to find immediate savings in its military personnel accounts, which were protected from the sequester this year. More-rapid-than-planned reductions in the current force would require congressional approval and would be slow to generate savings because of separation payments, travel costs, payments for unused leave and, in some cases, unemployment insurance. But if the Defense Department were forced to make a proportional cut to its military personnel accounts next year, officials would have to put in place an “extremely severe package” of cuts that would include halting all accessions, stopping discretionary bonuses and freezing promotions, Hagel wrote. Implementing sizable cuts to the department’s budget would only be exacerbated if Congress authorizes a pay raise for military personnel that is larger than the 1 percent raise in the administration’s request. The House-passed defense authorization bill (HR 1960) includes a 1.8 percent pay raise, which the Department estimates will add $500 million to its personnel costs next year and force even larger cuts in other areas. The Senate defense policy bill (S 1197) currently authorizes only a 1 percent raise. In his letter, Hagel also urged Congress to accept unpopular Tricare health care fee changes proposed by the department, which would save $1 billion in operations and maintenance costs next year, and also permit the Defense Department to immediately retire seven cruisers and two dock landing ships, for a savings of $600 million in fiscal 2014.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 14:39:09 +0000
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