Under a spending measure approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Defense Department’s funding for service contracts would be cut down to 2010 levels, in what Federal News Radio said amounted to a service-contractor hiring freeze.
DoD’s service-contracting budget would take a $1.1 billion cut, according to a committee press release. The spending freeze would be “comparable†to the current freeze on the federal civilian workforce.
The service-contracting reductions are some of the largest to come from the Senate’s spending plan, Federal News Radio reports. Overall, the committee’s plan would cut the Pentagon’s budget by about $6.4 billion.
The chairman of the panel, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), said the cuts were akin to a “down payment†on a plan the White House introduced in the spring to cut $400 billion from the national security budget over 12 years.
Other large cuts include about $1 billion in military construction projects.
