Defense Communities 360 Daily Despite Long Odds, BRAC Still Worth Fighting For, James Says Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James is pessimistic about the prospect that Congress will approve the Pentagon’s request for a new BRAC round in 2017, but believes DOD will continue trying to persuade lawmakers of its importance at a time when it is coping with stringent spending caps. “As a person who came out of business, the last things a corporation would do is spend money on facilities that are no longer needed,” James told defense reporters Wednesday. “You would never, never, never run a business this way. I realize government is not a business. But there are certain principles [that] make good common sense,” she said, reported Roll Call. A base closure round is not the only cost-cutting measure DOD has proposed that Congress appears intent on rejecting. The service has proposed retiring its fleet of A-10 close air support aircraft. So far, the House and Senate Armed Services committees have acted to block the move, while the House Appropriations Committee included the plan in its spending measure for next year. House lawmakers, however, may add an amendment blocking the fleet’s retirement when it takes up the defense appropriations bill this week. “What we have said to the opponents of the proposal is, if we’re not allowed to retire the A-10, please, please, please you must give us the money to add back,” James said. But don’t take the money out of the service’s readiness accounts, which have been depleted in the past two years, she added.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 19:29:35 +0000
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