A procurement tax would provide Navy leadership with money to reallocate to programs that realize they need additional funding after the budget is finalized, Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments told Inside the Navy Aug. 18. "The problem you could run into is if you're too rigorous in [the] 5 percent, 10 percent [cut] for every program line no matter what, then you could end up with a problem . . . which is a program that was close to bone that says, 'I'll cut 10 percent but that means my thing's delayed for two years or I'm about to break a contract," he said. To avoid a schedule or contract breach the Navy would need to work on a case-by-case basis, Clark continued. Clark said typically when a tax like this is imposed the assumption is this is a CNO slush fund. In reality, it usually ends up being the fund that is used to fix problems with programs, he added.
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