'Getting Close'

The Defense Department is "getting close" to finalizing all of its resource management decisions for the fiscal year 2014 budget cycle, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told InsideDefense.com today after testifying for hours before the House Armed Service Committee during a sequestration hearing. Hale declined to comment further on the status of the budget decisions.

As InsideDefense.com recently reported, DOD has set an "aggressive" schedule for the completion of its FY-14 budget request, directing the services and defense agencies submit detailed spending plans in time for an expected release date in "mid-March." DOD guidance issued earlier this month cites a "notional" date of March 25 for the delivery of most budget justification material to Congress, but the memo notes the schedule is subject to change.