Proposed cuts in Defense Department contracting will be smaller than originally anticipated, a spokesman for Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates in August proposed shuttering the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk and cutting military contract spending by 10 percent a year for three years, sparking bipartisan outrage from legislators in contractor-heavy Virginia. Connolly is part of a task force that met with Pentagon officials early Tuesday.
DoD service contracts for fiscal 2009 totaled $143 billion, but the proposed cuts are focused on a much narrower set of service support contracts, those that pay to bring private sector workers into D0D offices, worth $4.3 billion, said Connolly spokesman George Burke.
Connolly found it “very heartening” that the cuts would affect a much smaller group of contracts, Burke said.
It’s unclear at this point exactly to what extent the contract-dependent Northern Virginia economy would be impacted, Burke said.
Gov. Bob McDonnell and others indicated last month that the impact of the proposed cuts on Virginia may be blunted.
