The B-21 Raider continues to progress in ground testing with the commencement of engine runs at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Palmdale, Calif. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)
WASHINGTON — Congress’s failure to pass a fiscal 2024 budget is putting 89 new starts, or brand new programs, for the Department of the Air Force (DAF) at risk, a top service official said today.
Though lawmakers this week passed next year’s National Defense Authorization Act, there has been no movement on an accompanying budget or an over $100 billion supplemental package championed by the White House. The budget impasse that resulted in a continuing resolution (CR) beginning in October, “would stop 89 new starts” for the DAF — which encompasses the Air Force and Space Force — and specifically stymie 19 modernization initiatives meant to counter China should it continue too long, according to Kristyn Jones who is performing the duties of the under secretary of the Air Force.
“Failing to pass these appropriations by early next year forces [the DAF] to operate at a budget of FY23 minus 1 percent,” Jones told an audience at the AFCEA Air Force IT Day conference. Requiring the DAF to continue operating under a prolonged CR is roughly equal to the cuts imposed by sequestration, she said, a buying power reduction of approximately $13 billion.
Fretting over the impact to new starts, as well as adverse effects to current programs in need of higher funding levels, has been a familiar refrain from top Pentagon officials in recent years as CRs have become commonplace. Typically, the military services need a new budget approved to launch new starts and to ramp up funding for existing programs since CRs freeze budgets at the level set in the previous fiscal year.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown already raised the alarm to lawmakers about dangers to programs across the defense enterprise should a year-long CR come to pass, saying it would be “historically costly.”
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Alongside DAF initiatives like procurement of the B-21 Raider and a plan to field a medium earth orbit missile tracking constellation, the Navy’s shipbuilding and maintenance, Brown outlined in his letter, would suffer, possibly meaning only one of two requested Virginia-class submarines could be awarded. Speaking at a Politico event in November, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth additionally asserted that “eight to 10” new starts for her service could be delayed along with about a half-dozen programs for which officials want to ramp up production.
The military services are staring down another potential budget limitation under caps set by a debt ceiling deal earlier this year. Air Force Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs Joe McDade explained at the AFCEA event today that under the deal, the 1 percent cut to FY23-level funding Jones referred to would take effect at the beginning of the new year if a budget isn’t passed. However, those cuts would become permanent if a budget is still not enacted by the end of April 2024.
The debt ceiling deal, known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act, caps defense spending at $886 billion for FY24 and $895 billion for FY25. Those caps could be bypassed by an additional appropriation outside the normal budget process like the supplemental spending package currently being debated by Congress.
Since spending areas like military pay will be “fence[d]” off from potential cuts, the budget reductions will have to be spread among fewer places, McDade said, resulting in more pronounced cuts for particular accounts.
Yet there is a small bright spot in next year’s NDAA. Lawmakers have granted some reprieve to the Pentagon by passing a “quickstart” initiative promoted by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, which the secretary explained in an exclusive op-ed for Breaking Defense would authorize the military services to begin new start work or carry out new elements of current programs without waiting for Congress to pass a budget.
Lawmakers ultimately adopted a smaller version of Kendall’s proposal, reducing a potential pool of money from $300 million to $100 million — a relatively paltry sum when it comes to defense spending. The Air Force still welcomed the move, the service’s acquisition chief Andrew Hunter told Breaking Defense in a September interview. He noted that space programs would probably be a top priority for the Department of the Air Force under a CR.
The Air Force’s efforts to field a next-gen tanker would also be a top priority in a prolonged CR, Hunter said, though he noted that $100 million pot would have to be distributed among the services who have their own competing priorities.
