USAF Cost-Saving Memo

On Tuesday, InsideDefense.com reported that Air Force leaders had instructed the service's major commands to begin implementing small-scale cost-saving actions linked to sequestration, moves laid out by the secretary and chief of staff last week.

We now have their memo.

From the story:

To prepare for the possibility of sequestration taking effect on March 1, and in an effort to minimize the negative effects of a continuing resolution, Air Force Acting Under Secretary Jamie Morin and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Spencer have instructed the service's MAJCOMs to begin cutting cost immediately in a number of different ways. Morin, who spoke at an Air Force Association breakfast this morning, said he and Spencer issued that guidance yesterday.

Their new direction follows a memo from Secretary Michael Donley and Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force's chief of staff, dated Jan. 7 and addressed to Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. In the memo, Donley and Welsh outlined the short-term steps the Air Force will be taking to trim expenses, such as freezing civilian hiring; pausing many facility restoration projects; limiting non-critical travel and non-mission-related flying, such as appearances at air shows; and curtailing the purchase of non-essential equipment or services like software refreshes and furniture.

Morin said his and Spencer's guidance highlights those same kinds of cost-cutting measures and is "very much of a piece with what the secretary directed." The document formally gives the MAJCOMs the go-ahead to start limiting expenses because of the threat of sequestration, whereas Donley and Welsh's correspondence with Carter simply laid out likely courses of action, Morin said.