Pentagon leaders are preparing to mount an assault on the possible full return of draconian spending cuts known as sequestration as they near plans to unveil the defense budget request for fiscal 2016, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.
With the budget roll-out expected to take place Feb. 2, Hagel said the top officials and officers will subsequently be going to Capitol Hill for budget hearings and will make the case to lawmakers that a full return of sequestration would devastate the military.
“It is unanimous in this building, in this institution …that this continuation of sequestration will impact readiness, it’ll impact our acquisitions, it’ll impact the uncertainty of our budgeting. That means platforms being deferred into the future,” Hagel told reporters at a press conference.
Sequestration is set to kick in on Oct. 1, the first day of fiscal 2016, if lawmakers cannot agree on a plan to avoid it. Sequestration stems from the 2011 Budget Control Act designed to reduce federal spending over a decade. As currently written, sequestration would indiscriminately cut most budget accounts across the government, not allowing agencies to shift money around to meet priorities.
The sequester provision was inserted into the bill to force lawmakers to compromise, but the highly polarized atmosphere in Congress has prevented a deal on a long term basis. Congress had reached an agreement to avert sequestration in fiscals 2014 and 2015, but not further.
Pentagon leaders will “be very deliberate and direct about what will happen if sequestration comes back,” Hagel said.
Hagel’s role in the fight will likely be short lived, as he is slated to be replaced by former deputy defense secretary Ashton Carter. The timing will depend on the length of the confirmation process in the Senate, which is expected to get underway in early February. It’s anticipated that Carter’s nomination will easily win the Senate’s support.
In the meantime, Hagel said he has been meeting the lawmakers to detail the consequences of sequestration returning in full.
“Will the Congress have the courage to do what leaders have to do on these kinds of things?” said Hagel, a former senator. “That’s why we elect them. We’ll see.”