As the president and defense secretary prepare to preview the fiscal year 2013 budget this week, the unveiling of the actual budget plan has been delayed until mid-February.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “will release the FY 2013 budget on February 13th,” an administration official said in an e-mail message yesterday. “As in previous years, the date was determined based on the need to finalize decisions and technical details of the document.” President Barack Obama had been expected to send Congress his FY ’13 spending proposals for the Pentagon and other federal agencies on Feb. 6.
At least one Republican lawmaker cried foul yesterday over the new budget-release date.
“In this, the final year of his term, one would think he would be ready and eager to lay out his detailed plan for our nation’s financial future,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). “He speaks of the American people’s economic suffering, yet he would, at such a time, delay fulfilling this fundamental duty on their behalf.”
Obama plans to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress tonight. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta then is set to unveil some more details about the FY ’13 Pentagon budget on Thursday.
Defense-budget watchers have been trying to deduce which weapons programs could be cut since the Pentagon released a new defense strategy plan on Jan. 5. Obama pledged to end “Cold War” weapons that day, when his administration released an eight-page report on the military’s recent roles-and-missions review intended to identify a $487 billion cut to spending over the next decade. The five-year defense budget that will be unveiled next month is slated to reflect $263 billion of those cuts.
The strategy review calls for strengthening the U.S. presence in the Asia Pacific and shrinking the size of conventional ground forces, while investing in areas including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), unmanned systems, space capabilities, cybersecurity, and the capacity to mobilize quickly.
Defense analyst Jim McAleese, of McAleese & Associates in Sterling, Va., for exmaple, predicts the strategy review could lead to cuts to programs including Army vehicles. McAleese points to Panetta’s call for a flexible, adaptive, and leaner force structure. That could impact previous plans for vehicles including the Abrams tank, Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and Ground Combat Vehicle. Budget watchers also expect changes to the multi-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
Meanwhile, Panetta pledged his support last Saturday for maintaining 11 aircraft carriers, and not trying to override Congress and drop the number to 10 to save money.