Despite the two-year budget deal that eased sequestration cuts to defense, brass from the four services testified on Tuesday that the issue still keeps them up at night.
“We have not had a stable fiscal planning environment for three years now so we continue to make hard trade-offs and mortgage our future readiness because we’re trying to fight today’s fight,” Gen. John Paxton, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support.
Last year’s bipartisan budget deal provided two years of relief from across-the-board sequestration cuts, but they are set to come back in full force in fiscal 2018 if Congress does not reach another compromise.
Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force vice chief of staff, said sequestration also “broke faith” with civilian employees who were furloughed.
“We lost a number of them who decided that if the company was not invested in them, they were not going to stick with the company,” he said.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn and Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michelle Howard also agreed that sequestration was their top concern with regard to readiness.
Under current budget restraints, Paxton said half of the Marines in non-deployed units are suffering from some sort of training, equipment or personnel shortfalls, as well as long deployments and less time at home to rest, train and recover.
“The strains on our personnel and equipment are showing in many areas, particularly in aviation, in communications and intelligence,” he said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the current operational tempo for troops is like “forcing the same five people to play a game of basketball without relief from the bench,” while acknowledging that Congress helped create the problem through sequestration.
In addition to a strain on people, Paxton said the service’s platforms are also struggling to meet needs, especially F/A-18 fighter jets, which are in high demand while the F-35 still isn’t fully online.
“We’re flying the wings, literally, off the F-18s right now. That is probably the biggest pacing item for us,” he said.
