2012 Federal Budget for Defense
We were able to participate in a DoDLive Bloggers’ Roundtable with The Honorable Robert F. Hale, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Defense this morning. It was informative in some respects, but, understandably, much of the nitty gritty is more the province of the four services and not the Comptroller.
The first thing to recognize is that Congress has not yet adopted a Federal budget for 2011. That fiscal year began on October 1, 2010. A series of continuing resolutions has allowed the various agencies to continue to operate but within strict limits. Mr. Hale pointed out that the services are unable to let certain contracts, such as one for a new Virginia class submarine. Hiring freezes have been imposed and some positions are going unfilled because of that.
He addressed the current budget in the House, about $18-22 billion less than requested. His hope is that, working with the Senate, the final budget will be much closer to the request.
Some of the bullets from the 2012 Defense Department budget request:
- Pay increase of 1.6% for military service emembers
- First Tricare premium increase in fifteen years, $5 fam/$2.50 indiv
- About 10% reduction in contractor positions performing staff augmentation activities
- reduction in regular forces of 20,000 plus in the out years
In response to a question from ANSJ, the Comptroller talked about the funding of humanitarian assistance missions such as the Great Haitian Earthquake. The DoD maintains a fund (Overseas Humanitarian Disaster and Civic Assistance) of about $100 to $200 million for such operations. When that fund is exhausted, Congress may authorize the transfer of funds from other lines in the budget. In the case of Haiti, the final costs to DoD were several times the existing fund availability.
The short answer is that after the disaster fund is used, the money comes from the warfighting side of DoD.
Hale referred questions about cutting weapons systems and programs to the individual services. The budget cuts such programs as the “Marine Corps Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, the procurement of the Army Surface Launched Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile air defense system, and the Navy’s SM-2 Block IIIB surface-to-air missile”.
Table of contents for Bloggers' Roundtable
- We Don’t Commute to Work Anymore
- Terror Investors Might Want to Look Elsewhere
- I Hear It’s Safe
- In Our Area the Taliban Are Paying More a Month
- Iraqi Police Progress
- Sept. 11 Conspirators Going to Trial
- Continued Courage and Committment
- The Year of Opportunity – 2008
- Competent, Capable, Effective Leadership
- Afghan Army Acts: Decisive, Overwhelming
- Iraqi Military Medical Services
- Dallas Reporting: Aid Mission to Georgia
- Military Integration Into NIMS
- Status Report From the Afghan South
- Status Report From the Afghan East
- Fourth Fleet Is About Partnerships
- Iraqi Police Primer
- Sons of Iraq Status Update
- Army Apologizes
- We Are Here!
- Yar! There Be Pirates!
- Cobra Gold 2009
- Our Best: Sergeant First Class Helen Gillespie
- Africa Partnership Station Comes to E Africa
- Building the Rule of Law in Afghanistan
- Sons of Iraq and the Iraqi Budget
- Air Force Combat Camera – Focus on the Fight
- Afghan Update for July 22, 2009
- The Army Goal: 1.5 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy
- Withdrawing from Iraq – some perspective
- Iraqi security update April 22 2010
- 2012 Federal Budget for Defense
- Pacific Command and the Pacific
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 10:31 am and is filed under Military, Original writing, Original writing, Reporting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
[...] us on the call were Andrew Lubin, of Leatherneck Magazine; Chuck Simmins of America’s North Shore Journal; Tom Goering, of Navy Cyberspace; Jared Serbu, of Federal News Radio; Dale Kissinger, of Military [...]