FOR THE RECORD


CONGRESSIONAL UPDATE


‘A PERFECT STORM’ On Feb. 26, in testimony before the U.S. House of Repre- sentatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Chief of Staff of the Army GEN Raymond T. Odierno painted a bleak picture of the fi scal landscape. Since then, the picture has improved slightly.


Odierno paid particular attention to the continu- ing resolution (CR) and the then-looming specter of sequestration, which subsequently went into eff ect. (T e full text of his remarks for the record is online at http://docs.house.gov/ meetings/ap/ap02/20130226/100281/hhrg-113-ap02-wstate- odiernog-20130226.pdf.)


Odierno called the current fi scal circumstances “dire and, to our knowledge, unprecedented.” He described “the fundamen- tal lack of predictability in the budget cycle,” due not just to sequestration but also to DOD having “operated under a con- tinuing resolution for 14 of the last 28 months.” CRs create ineffi ciencies, he said, because they prohibit the start of new pro- grams and increases for existing, needed programs, and restrict the movement of funds between programs as well as delaying program execution.


As the Army plans for the future, especially with respect to lower- ing the costs of acquisition, the budgeting process is signifi cantly hampered by uncertainty as to just how much money the Army has to budget. “In the absence of a full-year appropriation that reallocates funds where they are needed,” Odierno said, “the Army will need to reprogram the necessary funds across appro- priations to address this shortfall and protect readiness as much as possible.”


In short, he said, “we fi nd ourselves in the midst of a per- fect storm created by a continuing resolution that puts funding in the wrong places, a shortfall in funds for


overseas contingency operations due to higher-than-antic- ipated costs in theater, and the threat of sequestration.”


RISK MITIGATION Odierno went on to describe pending cuts to training, personnel and maintenance, such as the cancellation of all but one of the Brigade Maneuver Combat Training Center


rotations for non-deploying


units in FY13; the elimination of 37,000 fl ying hours from aviation training at Fort Rucker; curtailment of restoration and modernization projects in FY13; termination of an estimated 3,100 temporary and term employees; and an Armywide hiring freeze.


Some cuts in Army spending, said Odierno, could put more than 1,000 companies from which the Army buys goods and services at risk of bankruptcy, potentially damaging the organic industrial base.


160


Army AL&T Magazine


April–June 2013


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