By Ann Roosevelt
Due to ongoing budget discussions the Army will not attend a House Armed Services Committee panel on Air and Land forces this afternoon about the status of its Future Combat System (FCS).
Lawmakers are to receive testimony from three Government Accountability Office (GAO) officials on the Army’s top modernization program.
“The Army will not participate in the upcoming HASC hearing because its scope and focus are too closely aligned with ongoing, pre decisional budget and acquisition discussions within the Department of Defense,” an Army spokesman said.
“In its recent FCS report, the GAO principally recommended that Congress withhold full funding for the FCS program until the Army and Defense Department reviews the program’s budget and aligns its acquisition strategy,” the service spokesman said. “As previously discussed, the Army has significant differences with the GAO findings and methodology” (Defense Daily, March 17).
Service and GAO officials were on the Hill March 17 ready to offer testimony on FCS and their differences, when Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) fell ill. (Defense Daily, March 18).
The hearing with testimony from GAO officials is slated to begin at 2 p.m. today.