CSBA in the News

As the Pentagon seeks to vastly expand its cyber warfare efforts, experts and hackers warn that hackers who have the skills to wage this war are not a good fit for America’s straight-laced military culture. In short, potential soldiers in cyber warfare break the military mold.

Under sequestration, military personnel accounts are completely exempt from cuts, and according to Todd Harrison, the senior defense budget fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, that’s where DoD faces the biggest budget heartburn, at least over the long-term.

The federal debt limit extension deal passed by House Republicans last week assures that the federal government will not default on its loans through mid-May. But that might not be good news for Pentagon officials gearing up for the next showdown: sequestration.

The Pentagon could begin furloughing civilian employees one day a week starting in mid-April if sequestration takes effect on its new March 1 deadline, POLITICO has learned.

Of all the politically difficult budget issues that Mr. Hagel will face, few are more charged than the question of military entitlements which have risen sharply over the past decade.