Wesley Hallman, senior vice president for strategy and policy at the National Defense Industrial Association, has said that the recently signed 2019 Bipartisan Budget Act may lead to better government-industry collaboration.
Read More »GAO: Reported Spending Authority, Permanent Appropriations Rose 88% From FY 1994-2015
The Government Accountability Office has found that federal agencies reported $3.2T in total spending authority and permanent appropriations for fiscal year 2015, reflecting an 88 percent rise from FY 1994. GAO said in a report published Tuesday that such inflation-adjusted growth was primarily driven by the use of permanent appropriations authority, which supports federal entitlement initiatives such as Medicare and the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance program.
Sen. Jim Inhofe, Rep. Mac Thornberry Urge White House to Back $733B DoD Budget for Fiscal 2020
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) have called on the Trump administration to back away from the plan to impose a $33B cut to the Defense Department’s budget for fiscal 2020. Inhofe and Thornberry, chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary piece posted Thursday that such a move would force DoD to enforce cuts in “areas where most money can be saved quickly—troops, new equipment, training and maintenance—as it did under sequestration in 2013.”
A&D Trade Group Asks Congress to Finalize FY 2018 Spending Bill, Address Budget Caps
The Aerospace Industries Association has called on House and Senate leaders to finalize the appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018 as well as repeal or increase the budget caps in order to avert a possible sequestration. AIA and other defense and aerospace industry executives wrote in the Dec. 1 letter …
Read More »GAO: Continuing Resolution, Sequestration Impact Timing of Federal Agency Spending
The Government Accountability Office has found that officials at federal agencies tend to limit their expenditures early in the fiscal year due to continuing resolutions, sequestration and other budget uncertainties. GAO said Wednesday the finding is based on the assessment of its testimonies and reports on agency budgets from 2009 through 2016. …
Read More »CBO: Fiscal 2017 Appropriation Actions Will Not Result in Sequestration
The Congressional Budget Office has said sequestration is not necessary for fiscal 2017 since appropriations for both defense and nondefense programs do not go beyond the caps on discretionary budget authority. CBO said in an August report that fiscal 2017 appropriations for defense programs based on the Office of Management and Budget …
Read More »James Mattis: Congress Should Eliminate Sequestration, Approve FY 2018 Defense Budget to Avoid CR
Defense Secretary James Mattis has asked Congress to put an end to sequestration and pass the proposed defense budget for fiscal year 2018 to prevent another continuing resolution that he said hampers military readiness, modernization and innovation, DoD News reported Monday. The Trump administration proposed to allocate a topline defense budget …
Read More »House, Senate Armed Services Committee Leaders Seek Defense Sequestration Reversal
Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), head of the House armed services panel, have echoed the call of a group of lawmakers to reverse the sequestration policy for defense programs, Defense News reported Monday. “Sequestration is an act of sheer …
Read More »CBO: No Sequestration Required for Fiscal 2017
The Congressional Budget Office has said sequestration is not necessary for fiscal year 2017 because appropriations for defense and nondefense initiatives are respectively equivalent to the $634 billion and $553.6 billion adjusted caps on discretionary budget authority for the year. CBO said in the May 2017 report adjustments to discretionary budget limits for 2017 …
Read More »Report: Trump’s Proposed $54B Defense Budget Increase Would Top BCA Spending Limit
A Congressional Research Service report says President Donald Trump’s proposal to increase defense spending by $54 billion for fiscal 2018 would exceed the $549 billion spending cap under the Budget Control Act, GovExec reported Tuesday. Charles Clark writes that Trump has proposed cuts to domestic programs to offset 60 percent of the defense funding boost. …
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