The Defense Department will be $35 billion short of its operation and maintenance (O&M) requirements if current funding levels continue due to sequestration and a continuing resolution (CR), according to its comptroller.
Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Robert Hale said yesterday DoD is about 40 percent short of its O&M needs.
“It’s not surprising we’re headed for a readiness crisis,” Hale said as part of Aviation Week’s Defense Technology Affordability and Readiness conference in Arlington, Va.
An existing CR that expires March 27 has frustrated Pentagon officials because it sets their funding near fiscal year 2012 levels and does not allow them to execute the FY ’13 defense budget as they want, notably, not allowing a planned boost in O&M funding. By adding the $1.2 trillion decade-long cuts known as sequestration that kicked-in Friday, DoD is planning for plenty of red ink, Hale said.
“At the moment, we can’t count on relief legislatively, so we are still doing worst case planning: Year-long sequestration, year-long CR in its current form,” Hale said.
President Barack Obama signed an order Friday night initiating sequestration, even as he pledged to continue trying to negotiate an alternate deficit-cutting plan with congressional Republicans. Until FY ’13 ends on Sept. 30, the sequestration cut works out to $42.7 billion to defense spending, according to a report from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submitted to Congress Friday.
The OMB report details how sequestration would impact various Pentagon accounts, if the cuts remain in FY ’13. For example, the Navy’s $22.5 billion shipbuilding account would be reduced by $1.8 billion, and $22.8 billion in Air Force aircraft procurement would be trimmed by $1.8 billion (Defense Daily, March 5).