Rapid Fire Jan. 11, 2013: Pentagon Preempts Budget Squeeze

• Soon-departing US SecDef Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dempsey held a press conference (transcript, video) mostly focused on budget issues:

“The continuing resolution (CR) expires on March 27th. If Congress fails to pass the appropriations bill for FY 13 and simply extends the CR through the year, our overall operating accounts would decrease by about 5% below the proposed budget presented by the president for our 2013 budget. That amount roughly comes to about $11 billion that would come out of Operations and Maintenance (O&M).”

• As colliding deadlines loom ever closer and Congress has been stuck in a holding pattern, Panetta is directing the department to “curtail facility maintenance for non-mission-critical activities, freezing civilian hiring, delaying certain contract awards.” Dempsey was somewhat confused about how much sequestration would impact the remaining part of FY13 (about $43B-$45B according to Comptroller Dale and CSBA, not $52B) but nonetheless took a comment from Bloomberg’s Capaccio in stride: “Actually you’re not correcting me, because I’m right.” (Dempsey’s point on the burn rate was right but his number was incorrect.)