A top U.S. general on Thursday joined military leadership and lawmakers in condemning the continuing resolution that is currently funding the government and is soon to expire, asking Congress to deliver a budget for the Pentagon in the coming weeks – even if it is subject to spending constraints.
“This is the ninth year that we’ve operated under a continuing resolution,” Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at an Air Force Association event, referring to the short-term appropriations bill that until April 28 has frozen federal spending at levels from the prior fiscal year. Selva noted that the Donald Trump administration is the first to transition into office under such legislation.
A freeze in funding for national defense is “destructive to the way we do business,” Selva said, because these resolutions “tie us to yesterday’s plan” and “force us to spend money on things we don’t need, and prevent us from spending money on things we do need.”
Selva said he hopes Congress in coming weeks will lift the continuing resolution and deliver a new fiscal 2017 budget, even if it subject to Budget Control Act caps; “We can navigate the rest of the uncertainty,” he said. The budget year ends on Sept. 30.
Congress is in recess until April 24, leaving only a handful of days upon its return to craft some sort of budget to keep the federal government operating.
“If you’re going to play politics with the administration’s request for additional funds, give us the budget you said you were going to nearly a year ago when we started the debate over the [fiscal 2017] budget,” Selva said.
The House of Representatives last month approved a $577.9 billion defense appropriations bill for this fiscal year, sending it to the Senate for consideration. The bill would fund the Defense Department at a level $5.2 billion higher than the fiscal 2016 enacted level.
For nuclear deterrence, the spending plan would grant $113.9 million for the Air Force’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the replacement for today’s Minuteman III ICBMs; $95.6 million for the Long-Range Standoff nuclear cruise missile; $113.7 million for intercontinental ballistic missiles; and $773.1 million for ongoing development of the Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.
The White House also last month released its fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, proposing $639 billion in funding for the department, or $52 billion over the current level. A more detailed proposal is expected in May.
Selva is not the only official to sound the alarm over the continuing resolution and its fast-approaching expiration. Last week, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said during a Senate hearing that another short-term spending allowance for this fiscal year would become a “very significant issue” making it difficult to start new programs and delaying recapitalization programs necessary to maintain each leg of the nuclear triad.
Upgrades to the triad involve replacements of the DOD’s existing fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles, ballistic missile submarines, and strategic bombers, all for a projected cost of roughly $1 trillion over 30 years. The B-21 bomber is expected to be deployed in the mid-2020s, the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent in the late 2020s, and the new Columbia-class submarine by fiscal 2031.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) also said last week that another continuing resolution for the rest of this fiscal year would “do too much harm” and that he would oppose any such proposal.
