In an extraordinary letter to defense lawmakers and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, experts from nine Washington think tanks on the left and the right call for fundamental fixes to the defense budgets that, left undone, “threaten the health and long-term viability of America’s volunteer military.”
The letter, run as an ad in the The HIll newspaper this morning, cites what it calls “a striking bipartisan consensus” across the thinks tanks that at least three major issues must be addressed, though they don’t all agree on how to change them. The signers include most of the most respected defense analysts in America.
“It is our shared belief that the Department of Defense urgently needs to close excess bases and facilities, reexamine the size and structure of the DoD civilian workforce, and reform military compensation. While we do not all agree on the best approach to reform in each case, we agree that if these issues are not addressed, they will gradually consume the defense budget from within,” the letter says.
Top of the list: base closures, which Congress has opposed since former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta proposed them.
In a nice bit of understatement, the authors note that, “many in Congress are understandably fearful of repeating the mistakes of the most recent round of base closures in 2005.”
But, sounding a bit like a mother soothing an anxious child, the think tank experts, point out to lawmakers that round of base closures “was an anomaly in many respects because it occurred during a period of growth in defense spending and emphasized moving and consolidating facilities instead of outright closures.”
Then they get to the facts, noting that the Defense Department could close 20 percent of its infrastructure and use that money for other things.
Then they get to the well known civilian workforce problem. After 911, the active duty military grew by 3.4 percent. while the civilian workforce grew by 17 percent. “In the last four years alone, DoD civilians have grown by ten percent, but it is unclear if that growth was appropriately matched to the changing needs of a downsizing military and shifting strategy.” They aren’t sure how much needs to be cut, but $74 billion in civilian pay is clearly a tempting target.
The last thing they all agree on is the need for change to military pay and benefits. This has been something Congress just will not do, afraid to be blamed for cutting the pay and benefits of solders who have become iconic in the American imagination.
“Yet if Congress fails to curb the growth in military compensation costs, they will continue to grow as the defense budget shrinks, crowding out funds needed for training, readiness and for the replacement of worn out equipment,” the think tank experts say. Congress has created a bipartisan commission to look at military compensation and the letter says the Hill should “commit to bringing the recommendations of this commission to a vote in both chambers.”
Let’s see what Congress is capable of over the next 18 months. The House Armed Services Committee’s markup of the defense authorization bill begins Wednesday. Few of these issues are likely to be addressed in it.