Pentagon Comptroller Hale ‘Hopeful’ For Sequestration ‘Micro-Deal’

WASHINGTON: As the House and Senate budget committees confer behind closed doors, the Pentagon’s top budgeteer says that even though he doesn’t know what’s going on he still has hope. “I’ve got my fingers crossed,” Robert Hale, the Defense Department comptroller, told the Defense One conference here this afternoon. “I remain at least cautiously optimistic…

Secret Brief On DoD Readiness Woes Set For House Members; HASC Hopes To Sway GOP Leaders

Secret Brief On DoD Readiness Woes Set For House Members; HASC Hopes To Sway GOP Leaders
Secret Brief On DoD Readiness Woes Set For House Members; HASC Hopes To Sway GOP Leaders

CAPITOL HILL: The House Armed Services Committee will hold an extraordinary classified briefing Thursday, open to all House members, on the state of readiness in the US military. Rep. Randy Forbes and other HASC members who pushed for the briefing hope it will help convince Speaker John Boehner and other key GOP leaders that the combined effects…

GOP Must Move On Revenues Or Sequester Happens: Sen. Murray

WASHINGTON: If Republicans don’t agree to a “balanced” deal that raises revenues, Democrats are willing to let sequestration strike on Jan. 2nd — and the Bush tax cuts expire on Dec. 31st — Sen. Patty Murray said this afternoon in a major escalation of Congress’s ongoing game of chicken. “If we can’t get … a…

Next Week, A Storm of Sound & Fury On Sequestration

WASHINGTON: As jetlagged aerospace executives and defense reporters head home from a frankly discouraging Farnborough Air Show, Washington is gearing up for storm of stop-sequestration events this coming week. What it will actually accomplish is an open question. Sequestration has hardly been a quiet topic this past week, with a pointed, partisan, and unproductive exchange…