The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is gearing up for the start of the fiscal year 2015 budgeting process even if members are not in Washington this week, with chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) writing to 14 top military officials to ask what needs they have that will not be included in the Pentagon’s budget request.
McKeon sent letters to the four service chiefs, the National Guard Bureau chief and the nine combatant commanders to ask them all to submit–directly to the committee–their list of unfunded requirements. The White House intends to send a $26 billion “investment fund” of projects it would like to fund if it had more money, but McKeon said in a Feb. 17 statement that he wants additional lists from each admiral and general without the requirements being vetted by anyone else.
“Even the President acknowledges that the national security budget is insufficient to meet the threats we face; that is why he is sending us a list of requirements he needs but cannot fund,” McKeon said in the statement. “While I welcome his list, I am more interested in hearing directly from our service chiefs and commanders on their unfunded requirements rather than receiving an edited White House list tailored to scoring political points.”
McKeon asked that the lists be delivered to both him and HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) by March 4, the same day the Pentagon is expected to send its budget request to Congress.
HASC spokesman Claude Chafin said the committee wasn’t necessarily looking to replace any certain types or number of line items with the projects listed in these unfunded requirements. Rather, he said, the committee has in the past used these unfunded requirements lists as “a valuable tool to test the adequacy of the budget to meet the requirements of the national security strategy. First and foremost, that is what the Committee will be looking for.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to preview the budget request next week, though several military spokespeople said it was unclear at this point when exactly that would take place and what level of detail he would provide.
Specific funding levels for acquisition programs, training, maintenance and more will be unveiled by each military service on March 4. Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 5.
SASC continues to schedule its FY ’15 posture hearings, starting with U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Cyber Command on Feb. 27 and continuing throughout March and April.
HASC has not released its hearing schedule yet, but Chafin said the committee would announce the dates next week.