The Pentagon’s top uniformed official has said the department will face “historically costly” impacts to thousands of programs, ranging from nuclear modernization to multi-year munitions procurement plans, if it has to operate under a year-long stopgap funding measure.
Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a letter this week to the Senate’s top appropriator urging Congress to pass final fiscal year 2024 spending bills and outlining the effects of a long-term continuing resolution.
“A year-long CR would prevent the DoD from executing numerous multi-year procurement contracts that are critical to meeting our requirements in the Indo-Pacific; delay or deny investments in important modernization projects; and create a significant shortfall in personnel funding,” Brown wrote in his letter to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Appropriations Committee. “Thousands of programs will be impacted with the most devastating impacts to our national defense being to personnel, nuclear triad modernization, shipbuilding and ship maintenance, munitions production and replenishment and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command priorities.”
The Pentagon has already been operating under a CR for the last two months, with Congress having passed another measure two weeks ago to avoid a government shutdown and allow for additional time to complete work on final FY ‘24 appropriations bills (Defense Daily, Nov. 16).
The current CR was proposed by new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and is a two-step, or “laddered,” measure that temporarily funds a handful of agencies and programs, such as those covered by Military Construction-VA, Agriculture, Energy-Water and Transportation-HUD spending bills, until Jan. 19 and all remaining agencies and programs, to include defense, until Feb. 2.
Brown noted the Pentagon has never operated under a year-long CR, which funds the government at the previous year’s spending level and blocks the department from starting new programs or initiating production rate increases.
“In a CR, the DoD’s actual buying power is significantly impacted and degraded. Failing to fully fund the DoD would disrupt important progress made in fiscal year 2023,” Brown wrote in his letter. “As I have said previously, we cannot outpace our pacing challenge, [China], while under a CR.”
For nuclear modernization efforts, Brown said procurement plans for the new Northrop Grumman [NOC] B-21 Raider bomber will be delayed and a year-long CR may prevent an award for the second Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine.
The current CR does include a $3.3 billion anomaly to allow the Navy to start construction on the next ballistic missile submarine and help avoid delays in the Columbia-class program (Defense Daily, Nov. 13).
Brown said a year-long CR would block the Navy from spending 30 percent, or $9.7 billion, of its FY ‘24 shipbuilding request and noted only one of two Virginia-class submarines could be awarded.
The Pentagon would be unable to award multi-year procurement contracts for critical munitions under a year-long CR, with Brown specifically citing the department’s plans to pursue such deals for Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles, GMLRS, Patriot interceptors, Naval Strike Missiles and a long-range version of the JASSM.
The department has aimed to utilize new authorities for multi-year munitions contracts to help increase production capacity and replenish its inventories, with Brown having previously cited such deals as critical to ensuring the Pentagon is able to meet its munitions stockpile requirements (Defense Daily, July 11).
Brown said a year-long CR would also impact $1.3 billion in planned investments related to bolstering capability in the Indo-Pacific, to include forward basing, sensor-to-shooter capabilities, long range radars, hypersonic weapon defense and investments in classified capabilities.
On personnel, Brown wrote that a long-term stopgap funding measure would also create a $5.8 billion shortfall in personnel funding and that it would block new military construction projects.
“Military construction projects are, by definition, new starts, so a year-long CR could cause a year-long delay in construction projects intended to modernize our installations and improve quality of life,” Brown said.
Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official, said earlier this month that CRs have a “devastating effect” on the department (Defense Daily, Nov. 17).
“If a CR ends in January, which would be optimistic this time, the money that goes will now flow out to the commands that do the contracting probably till about May because [of] all the processes this takes,” LaPlante said during a discussion at the Politico Defense Summit on Nov. 14. “You cut down on training and flying hours. You’re never going to get those flying hours back. And it’s just having this devastating effect.”
During a separate discussion at the same event, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the service would see an impact of at least $6 billion to programs if it has to operate under a six-month CR (Defense Daily, Nov. 14).
“I think it’s important to not lose sight of the fact that every time we go into a CR, we’re essentially spending the money we have much less efficiently. And at a time when we are dealing with the pacing challenge of China [and] supporting Ukraine against Russia, it makes no sense to spend taxpayer dollars inefficiently,” Wormuth said at the time.