David Norquist, Defense Department comptroller, has urged lawmakers to give DoD more spending flexibility in fiscal year 2018 across three areas, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.
U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, an inductee into the 2018 Wash100, told reporters that Norquist asked lawmakers to loosen the 80:20 rule, which prohibits federal agencies from spending more than 20 percent of their budget in the last two months of the fiscal year.
The DoD comptroller also seeks an increase in the maximum amount allowed for a Below Threshold Reprogramming, a mechanism that permits DoD to reallocate funds without congressional approval.
Norquist’s third request is to allow certain funds that would expire at the end of the fiscal year to carry over into FY 2019.
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-New Jersey), chairman of the House appropriations committee, told Navy leaders during a hearing that lawmakers have “worked out a path forward to provide that degree of flexibility you and the other services are looking for.”
Frelinghuysen could be referring to use of operations and maintenance funds, which can only be obligated throughout one fiscal year, the report noted.
