By Emelie Rutherford
A collection of 11 industry groups including the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) are ramping up the pressure on Congress to pass an actual defense appropriations bill this fiscal year instead of continuing to fund the Pentagon at least year’s levels.
“As Congress resumes debate on 2011 funding issues in advance of the expiration of the current (continuing resolution) CR on March 4, 2011, it is critical that policy makers carefully consider the negative impact on important aerospace and national security programs if (the Department of Defense) DOD is asked to manage its vast and complex operation under a year-long continuing resolution,” the organizations wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
The Pentagon’s budget has been funded since fiscal year 2011 began, on Oct. 1, 2010, with a series of CRs keeping the defense budget at FY ’10 levels and preventing new programs and contracts from initiating. The current CR is set to expire March 4, and it is not clear if Congress will pass a full-blown defense appropriations bill for the remainder of FY ’11. The 11 groups fear that Congress will simply continue the defense budget at FY ’10 levels, under one or more CRs, until FY ’11 ends.
If Congress does that, the organizations wrote to Boehner, the “lack of adequate funding would have adverse effects on the defense industrial base and vital new initiatives for our military and for aerospace activities.”
“Moreover, the lack of adequate DOD funding could threaten thousands of U.S. manufacturing and related jobs connected to these programs,” they added. “In particular, under- funded programs and delayed new starts could force companies to furlough or lay off employees and delay new hires.”
They argued a year-long CR would create a series of costly schedule delays, production breaks, and “other acquisition inefficiencies that will no only increase out-year costs for required DOD programs, it could adversely affect our warfighters.”
They maintained such outcomes “would actually hamper deficit control efforts rather than enhance them.”
The groups sending the letter include AIA, the National Defense Industrial Association, the Professional Services Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the Center for Defense Studies, and the Air Force Association.
They sent the letter late last week to Boehner as well as appropriations committee leaders.
If the Pentagon is funded through a full-year CR for the rest of FY ’11, Defense Secretary Robert Gates would receive $19 billion less than anticipated. He is raising alarms about that happening, noting his department has a series of pending “fact of life” bills to pay.
The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee and House Appropriations Committee (HAC) announced last week they will seek to pass a federal budget for the remainder of FY ’11 that would cut President Barack Obama’s overall budget request by $74 billion. HAC Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) proposed cutting Obama’s proposal for security spending by $16 billion, which breaks down to reducing funding for the Pentagon by $13.2 billion, the Department of Homeland Security by $1.1 billion, and military construction and veterans’ affairs by $1.3 billion.