Sequestration, a by-product of the Budget Control Act of 2011, is still law and doesn’t look like its being repealed anytime soon. Sequestration dictated a half-trillion dollar cut in the defense budget over 10 years. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 altered the budget caps dictated by the BCA but only for Fiscal 2014 and 2015—in Fiscal 2016 we return to those caps. The Fiscal 2016 budget will go to Congress the first Monday in February 2015. The continued imposition of the budget caps by the BCA is driving the force structure reductions and cancellations of major modernization programs. The active Army is facing a reduction from 520,000 to 420,000 and the Army Guard may go from 355,000 to 315,000 (but Congress may not let the Guard go that low). With those reductions may come less full time support (AGR and Mil Tech). Congress passed a continuing resolution for the start of Fiscal 2015 which expires on December 11th—look for an extension of that continuing resolution until the March 2015 time frame. The Defense budget documents can be downloaded from comptroller.defense.gov under the Budget Materials link.
DEFENSE BUDGET
