WASHINGTON - The leaders of the U.S. House Appropriations Defense subcommittee have told military leaders to prepare for an FY16 budget markup that adheres to sequestration caps. The Pentagon's $534.3 billion base budget request exceeds sequestration by $35 billion, and while many lawmakers want to find more money for the Pentagon, they seem to lack the political will to make it happen.
"I completely agree that the [Budget Control Act] needs to be modified to avoid dramatic, immediate and long-term negative impacts on our military capabilities," said HAC-D Chairman Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ). "But unless and until the law is changed, this committee has no choice but to draft our bill to comply with the BCA caps," he warned. The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Pete Visclosky (Ind.), said there are "insurmountable obstacles blocking every path forward" when it comes to repealing sequestration cuts.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has pleaded with lawmakers to eliminate sequestration spending caps and support the Pentagon's FY16 budget request. Carter said that even under sequestration, the U.S. would still maintain the strongest fighting force in the world, but that the military "would have to take on irresponsible and unnecessary risk."
Leaders of both the House and Senate armed services committees have appealed to their colleagues on the House and Senate Budget Committees to provide additional funding for the Department of Defense, though nobody has stepped forward with a plan that both Democrats and Republicans could agree on. And based on the recent statements from appropriators, the likelihood of a deal being reached to eliminate sequestration in FY16 appears slim.
The budget committees only have until early April to complete work on an FY16 budget resolution, which sets the topline funding allocations for each department. If the budget resolution adheres to BCA caps, then the defense committees will have to begin making cuts to the defense budget to ensure their markups adhere to the caps. This scenario will at least let Congress make targeted cuts within the budget, and lawmakers have asked the services for input on what should be cut under sequestration. If lawmakers appropriate above the BCA caps, then sequestration would apply across-the-board cuts, as was the case in FY13.
Congress could also try to implement a short-term deal to provide limited sequester relief, similar to the Ryan-Murray deal that provided some relief in FY14 and FY15. That agreement was passed at a late stage in theFY14 budget process, well after the 2014 fiscal year began. So even if the FY16 budget resolution adheres to BCA caps, lawmakers would still have time to change their minds if they find the markup process too painful. For now, though, it appears that congressional markups will begin slashing spending to conform to BCA spending limits.
You have 0 item(s) in your cart