The Air Force’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal could be more than permitted by Budget Control Act, or sequestration, caps, service Secretary Deborah James said Jan. 15.
James declined to go into detail, citing the formal release of President Barack Obama’s budget request, tentatively scheduled for the week of Feb. 2, but she said the service is planning on requesting according to need as opposed to sequestration.
“I suspect it will be above the sequestration level,” James told reporters during a briefing with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. “I suspect we’re going to be asking for a level which is much closer to what we think we need, as opposed to what we might be forced to live under if sequestration hits.”
The Budget Control Act of 2011 reintroduced statutory limits on discretionary spending, such as defense, from FY ’12 through FY ’21. Sequestration caps the base defense budget, not including wartime or overseas contingency operations (OCO) funding, at $523 billion for FY ’16.
James said while the Air Force wouldn’t submit two budgets, one under sequestration and one without sequestration caps, she said she “suspected” the service would propose one budget based on need and another with “probable alternatives” if sequestration spending caps remained in place. James again, for the second consecutive year, called on lawmakers to lift sequestration caps.
The Air Force in FY ’15 requested $138 billion. DoD-wide, the president requested $496 billion in FY ’15.