The Department of the Navy’s comptroller this week warned if the government faces a sequester starting in 2024 the Navy would face a $15 billion budget cut and if there is a year-long continuing resolution the Navy would have about $26 billion misaligned while the second new nuclear-armed submarine could not be procured.
“Despite the stability and responsibility the Fiscal Responsibility Act [FRA] was supposed to give us across the U.S. government, passed by both chambers of Congress, we are instead heading into FY ‘24 on unstable and uncertain footing. There are real consequences. These are just my team’s numbers, they’re not official, they’re not approved by my bosses…but by our calculation, if we faced a sequester in January, the Department of the Navy would eat a $15 billion reduction, just less than half of what we think DoD’s total that gets meat cleavered,” Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management and Comptroller Russell Rumbaugh said during an Atlantic Council event on Sept. 12.
He noted the law that increased the debt ceiling while putting caps on spending for two years includes a sequester cut of one percent from FY ‘23 levels if all the appropriations bills are not passed by January.
Rumbaugh said it “shocks” him that despite Congress passing and the president signing the FRA government officials now worry about getting the appropriations completed at all, let alone on that timeline. He noted FRA did not assume the budget would be finished for the normal start of the fiscal year in October but uses the calendar year as a time limit.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Act didn’t even expect to have an appropriations bill that by the start of the fiscal year, instead it sought to assure them by the start of the calendar year, by January, not by October, but it at least assumed the deal cut to raise the debt ceiling and cap discretionary spending would hold and to enforce that deal.”
He also said any continuing resolutions to bridge the gap will create difficulties for the Department of the Navy (DoN), “but there’s continuing resolutions, and then there’s continuing resolutions.”
“If we avoid a sequester but are stuck in a full year CR, we would have over $26 billion misaligned,” Rumbaugh said.
He highlighted that the second Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) is a new start vessel set for FY ‘24, part of a class that will replace the Ohio-class SSBNs, so without new funding levels, the Navy cannot order the boat.
“So without an appropriations bill, we can’t begin it, despite its fundamental importance to our nation’s defense.”
Moreover, without the new FY ‘24 funding levels under the FRA, which meets the Biden administration’s DoD FY ‘24 budget request levels, the Navy does not get its five percent top line increase and five percent pay raises.
Rumbaugh argued the misaligned funding from a full year continuing resolution would cause 10 percent of the Navy Department’s budget to be “out of whack.”
He said all this uncertainty is piled on top of the possibility of a government shutdown and Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on all military nominations over his opposition to the military’s policy on reproductive healthcare for service members.
Currently both the Navy and Marine Corps service leaders are led by the number two leaders in an acting role, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith and Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti. Both leaders were nominated to lead their respective services.
Rumbaugh said as a comptroller he likes the rule that the services cannot start a new project by moving money from various buckets without getting the blessing of Congress via appropriations, but “it also means we’re not going to start the second Columbia-class submarine despite already worried about margin of getting these boats to sea to maintain the most fundamental nuclear deterrence.”
He also confirmed that these kinds of delays “absolutely could” have cost impacts.