Sequestration Deadline

Just two weeks remain until the March 1 sequestration deadline. Here's some of our coverage from Tuesday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the effects of the yearlong continuing resolution and sequestration on the military budget:

Senate Hearing Puts Spotlight On Potential Casualties Of Sequestration
(Inside the Pentagon, Feb. 14)

CRS: Readiness Accounts May Be Cut By Half Of What Chiefs Say Is Needed
(Inside the Pentagon, Feb. 14)

Carter: Giving DOD Transfer Authority No Substitute For Avoiding Sequestration
(DefenseAlert, Feb. 13)

More to come in next week's Inside the Army and Inside the Navy.

The Senate Appropriations Committee also had a related hearing this week. In her opening statement, new committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said:

The sequester was never intended to happen. It was designed as a tool to force a grand bargain on reforms to the tax code and reforms to mandatory spending, along with strategic, targeted cuts to reduce spending and get more value for the dollar. Those reforms have not happened. Instead, we play the politics of delay, lurching from deadline to deadline. No one thinks that this kind of 'ultimatum politics' is good for the fragile economy, creating good jobs, and promoting efficiencies in government.

In addition to the identical prepared testimony Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter had submitted to the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Mikulski included as part of the materials for her hearing a letter sent by outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday, which outlines the specific effects sequestration would have on the Pentagon.