About 50 smaller Air Force programs would have to be stalled if Congress is unable to pass a budget and instead relies on a year-long continuing resolution to fund the government, the service’s secretary told reporters on Monday.
Secretary Deborah Lee James said the service needs to be able to modernize and has already made some tough decisions under an already-tight budget environment, including petitioning Congress to retire the A-10.
“If we don’t get a budget, it’s going to affect lots and lots of programs,” she said. “There might be as many as 50 programs, many of them smaller programs, but nonetheless 50 programs that would fall under that category of a new start which could not be done under a full-year CR.”
No new programs can begin under a continuing resolution, which extends funding for another year at the previous year’s level. James said a CR likely wouldn’t affect awarding a contract for the service’s new long-range strike bomber, since funding has already been allotted to that initiative in previous years.
She said a contract award for the long range strike-bomber is coming “soon.”
Under an even smaller budget with a continuing resolution, James said she would work to avoid any cuts to the number of airmen, but that the service would not be able to recruit additional troops.
The Pentagon’s authorization bill is in the conference stage. That bill, and the appropriations bill, use a war fund in order to go above mandatory spending caps. President Obama has said he will veto legislation that doesn’t solve sequestration and find ways to raise spending for non-defense programs. As the calendar gets closer to the end of the fiscal year, a continuing resolution remains an option to fund the government.
Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, stressed that the Air Force must be able to modernize its fleet, saying that many of its aircraft are decades old.
“The idea that we would run a Formula One or a Nascar race with a car built in 1962 is ridiculous, but we’re going to war with airplanes built in 1962,” he said. “We have got to modernize the Air Force, it’s just an imperative.”
While the Air Force is working to use limited funding to modernize its fleet, the service is also being asked to do more in different parts of the world.
In addition to flying about 48,000 sorties in the past year against the Islamic State, the Air Force is also stepping up operations in Europe. James said F-22 Raptors will deploy to Europe to reassure allies of the U.S. commitment to the region.
