Defense
Congress, May I?
The latest defense authorization bill
prevents the Pentagon from making money-saving reforms.
The Pentagon is spending nearly a $1 billion a year on a program that
sends unemployment checks to former troops who left the military voluntarily.
The National Defense
Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015, which sets policy and priorities for
the Pentagon, was signed by the president last
week. While much of the policy in the bill is non-controversial and
reflects long standing agreement between the administration and Congress, when
my staff at Taxpayers for Common Sense was working our way through analyzing the huge, 1,600
page document, we noticed that Congress also goes out of its way to limit the
ability of the Pentagon to follow through on the vast majority of cost-saving
measures the administration sought in its budget request. In fact the word
“prohibition” appears 97 times in the bill and the word “limitation” appears
298 times.
One might think
Congress has no real interest in Pentagon leadership’s thoughts on how to run
the department. At a minimum, Congress, despite all of its talk of fiscal
constraint, seems dead set against efforts to curtail some outmoded or wasteful
programs, close a base or stem the growth of benefits. Here are some
details about just a few of the long list of prohibitions:
Base closure: The Pentagon’s
official reclama, part of a lengthy document appealing specific items in the
House and Senate drafts of the bill, stated, “The Department’s goal is a BRAC
[base closure commission] focused on efficiency and savings, and it is a goal
that departmental leadership believes is eminently achievable. Without
authorization for a new round of BRAC, DoD will not be able to properly align
the military’s infrastructure with the needs of the evolving force
structure.” Congress didn’t care and went out of its way to ensure the
Pentagon cannot close a military facility of any kind. The defense
authorization states, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize
an additional Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round.” No
explanation. No fancy language. No wiggle room. No base closure…
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