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Tony Bertuca is chief editor of Inside the Pentagon, the flagship publication of InsideDefense, where he focuses on defense budget and acquisition policy. He previously worked for the Sun-Times News Group in his hometown of Chicago, IL, and at the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, NH. Tony has also served as managing editor of Inside the Army. He has a master's degree in journalism from Boston University.
The House Armed Services Committee on Thursday released a list of potential negative impacts to the military should Congress move forward with a yearlong continuing resolution, rather than pass a regular fiscal year 2017 appropriations bill.
The federal debt held by the United States is now 77 percent of the gross domestic product, the highest in history, and is expected to increase sharply over the next 30 years, thereby constraining military spending and threatening the nation's ability to address potential financial or national security crises, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office report.
The Defense Innovation Board is slated to meet April 4 at the Pentagon to discuss its interim recommendation that the Defense Department establish a secure global data repository, according to a notice in the Federal Register.
Seeking tens of billions in additional defense spending, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is also promising to bring organizational reforms to the Pentagon as members of Congress express concerns about whether the Defense Department is appropriately managing its budget.
Lawmakers, fearing a government shutdown or a yearlong continuing resolution that would freeze spending at previous-year levels, have begun discussing a path forward that would leave the bulk of the Trump administration's proposed $30 billion defense spending increase for fiscal year 2017, according to officials and sources.
The Trump administration has sent Congress details on the $18 billion in non-defense cuts it has included in its fiscal year 2017 budgetary amendment, reductions the administration intends to help offset a proposed $30 billion increase in Defense Department spending, according to documents obtained by Inside Defense.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is scheduled to travel to New York and London this week to meet with officials from the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations and the British Ministry of Defence.
The week ahead is filled with several high-profile congressional hearings, though some of the most interesting will be held behind closed doors.
Here's a few must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Senate appropriators today that failing to add $30 billion to the Pentagon's coffers in fiscal year 2017 would further risk military readiness.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) and his House counterpart Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) expect President Trump's fiscal year 2018 budget proposal, which would make steep cuts in domestic spending to boost defense funding, to fail in Congress.
A panel of House lawmakers on Tuesday debated how much could be saved by streamlining Pentagon business practices and, though they differed along partisan lines on what to do with the savings, a bipartisan consensus emerged that billions in waste could be slashed at a time when President Trump has proposed steep cuts to domestic spending to increase the Defense Department's budget.
Congressional leaders will be challenged in the coming weeks to address President Trump's budget plans for fiscal year 2017, specifically a budgetary amendment that would increase defense spending by an additional $30 billion, but would break spending caps lawmakers have already agreed upon.
The week ahead is packed with major events including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' first appearance on Capitol Hill since taking charge of the Pentagon, as well as several other congressional hearings and conferences featuring senior military officials.
Pentagon officials made clear Thursday they would "like to have" the additional $30 billion in fiscal year 2017 as requested by a White House budgetary amendment, but not at the expense of a yearlong continuing resolution, or government shutdown, which some experts think the FY-17 package might trigger.
The White House is seeking a fiscal year 2017 budget amendment that would break spending caps agreed to by congressional Republicans and Democrats and could lead to a shutdown that might ultimately endanger additional defense spending this year.
The White House's fiscal year 2018 budget would boost national security spending by $54 billion, paid for by a 28 percent cut to the State Department, as well as double-digit cuts to other executive agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are slated to testify March 22 before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on the Defense Department's budget.
Though the White House has touted the president's accomplishments after 50 days in office, many national security insiders are concerned Defense Secretary James Mattis, the only Trump appointee at the Pentagon, is being hamstrung by the administration's failure to fill senior-level vacancies in the Defense Department's policymaking office.
President Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the head of each executive branch agency to submit proposals to the White House Office of Management and Budget for potential reorganization that could lead to cuts and consolidation.