Senator Threatens to Walk if Debt Panel Hits Defense
By Nathan Hodge
Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904103404576558993243510256.html
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011
A Republican senator threatened to walk out on the special deficit-reduction supercommittee if other members push for new cuts in defense spending.
The remark by Sen. Jon Kyl (R.,Ariz.), a defense finance expert and frequent budget negotiator, threatened to shatter any hope for compromise or bipartisan cooperation as the deficit panel held its first public meeting Thursday.
“I’m off of the committee, if we’re going to talk about further defense spending,” Sen. Kyl said at a luncheon organized by the conservative Foreign Policy Initiative, the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, referring to a conversation he had with panel members.
At the panel’s meeting earlier in the day, members took pains to set a conciliatory and optimistic tone. “Compromise is not a dirty word,” said committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.). “In fact, it is the difference between a divided government that works and a dysfunctional government that doesn’t.”
Pentagon leaders, lawmakers and administration officials have wrangled for months over how to rein in defense spending in response to President Barack Obama’s demand earlier this year that Pentagon cuts be included in any austerity push.
Mr. Kyl’s stance reflected a push by conservative defense hawks and Pentagon officials to stave off deeper cuts to military spending beyond the $350 billion over the next decade that was mandated by the deficit-reduction deal reached in August.
Congress is likely to cut as much as $27 billion from the Obama administration’s $553 billion budget request for the Defense Department in fiscal 2012, a figure that doesn’t include war costs, according to lobbyists and defense insiders.
But deeper cuts loom: If the supercommittee fails to agree on additional deficit savings, the new deficit-reduction law will result in automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion, half of which would fall on the Pentagon budget. Both lawmakers and Pentagon budget-crunchers are now scrambling to catch up, revising defense-spending legislation and long-term spending plans to reflect the new, more austere, reality.
A defense spokeswoman said the military services were also asked to revise their fiscal 2013 spending proposals. Traditionally, the Pentagon submits its budget requests for the coming fiscal year to Congress in February, but the preparatory work begins months in advance.
Rep. Howard McKeon (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was worried that cuts would be made without regard to preparedness or strategy. “It’s happening so fast, it’s kind of mind-boggling,” said Rep. McKeon. “We’ve got to get our arms around it and say, ‘Wait a minute.’ “
Separately, the defense industry, which has already seen a round of internal belt-tightening at the Pentagon and a series of weapons-program cancellations, is bracing for new cuts.
“There will likely be cuts to many programs, elimination of others, with additional cuts to operations and personnel accounts, given the magnitude of the top-line reductions,” said Cord Sterling, vice president for legislative affairs for the Aerospace Industries Association, a defense trade group.
The House has passed its version of the 2012 defense-appropriations bill, which funds the operations of the Department of Defense. A congressional staff member said the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel would take up the defense-spending bill next week.
Less clear is how different constituencies will try to influence the deficit-reduction committee. “I don’t think anyone has figured out how to influence the supercommittee,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute.
Pentagon press secretary George Little said he expected Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to meet with members of the bipartisan committee, although no specific meeting has been set.
Michael Herson, president of American Defense International (ADI), a defense-industry lobbying firm, said the deficit reduction panel likely would come up with budget-reduction targets, but would not prescribe cuts to specific defense programs.
“There are going to be defense cuts, obviously,” he said. “It’ll be up to DoD to figure out how to do that.”
Still, the trims to the current budget, paired with the deficit panel’s mandate, have created fresh uncertainty for the military’s suppliers.
“Among the most valued characteristics for any industry are predictability, clarity and consistency,” said Stan Soloway, the head of the Professional Services Council, a trade association that represents government contractors. “And they are not present in the market right now because of so many factors and forces that are in play.”
—Janet Hook contributed to this article.
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