Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will go to Congress this week to defend a $526.6 billion defense budget for 2014 that ignores the automatic cuts mandated by law.
Doing so gives the Pentagon about $51 billion more to spend in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
The government-wide budget plan that President Barack Obama will send to Congress on Wednesday ignores sequestration on the assumption that a deal with Congress to end it will still be reached. So Hagel must champion a budget plan that would increase defense spending even as he talks up the need to make “fundamental change” in Defense Department programs.
“I blame the Pentagon for not having a backup plan,” said Todd Harrison, an analyst with the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments who spoke with reporters April 5 in Washington.
Hagel, who will appear Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee, should be asked how he would manage “taking another $50 billion in cuts” if sequestration, which began March 1, stays in place, Harrison said.
“You’ve got to at least present something to Congress” that lays out scenarios for cutting force levels and capabilities to meet the budget cap, Harrison said. “Let them see the options/.../”