Lawmaker explores Pentagon savings ideas
Review by House Armed Services chairman would complement a five-year effort within the Pentagon to find more than $100 billion in cost savings.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., said Tuesday he is planning his own scrub of the Pentagon's budget to find what savings can be found and redirected to higher-priority defense accounts.
During a breakfast with reporters, Skelton said he is considering various approaches, including creating a new panel made up of committee members to review the issue.
Other options include tasking the committee's acquisition reform panel with the review, or asking each subcommittee to come up with a certain amount of savings, he said.
"I have not yet decided what to do, but I'm taking it very seriously, and I will do one of those very, very soon," Skelton said.
The House has already passed its version of the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill, which prescribes military spending levels and sets Pentagon policy. So any review by Skelton's committee would affect defense budgets beginning in fiscal 2012.
Skelton's review would complement a five-year effort within the Pentagon to find more than $100 billion in cost savings in the defense budget and redirect that money to pay for military weapons systems and force structure.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is directing the military services and defense agencies to scrub their accounts to find $7 billion in savings for the fiscal 2012 budget, and more in the following years.
The majority of the cost savings -- roughly two-thirds -- comes from trimming unnecessary overhead, which accounts for about 40 percent of the Defense Department's total budget. The other third of the savings will come from cost cuts to force structure and modernization, which the Pentagon began last year when it canceled several weapons programs deemed unnecessary.
"I applaud the secretary for his initiative in this. He's an excellent secretary," Skelton said. "I'd give him an A-plus for how he deals with these tough issues."
Both Gates' initiative and Skelton's plans to review the defense budget come as the Pentagon's base budget, which has nearly doubled since 2001, is expected to receive only 1 percent real growth for the next several years.
Pentagon leaders have said the military needs about 2 to 3 percent real growth in its modernization and force-structure accounts to maintain the force.
As the Defense Department faces the prospect of tighter budgets, Skelton said the military's money could be spent more wisely. He lauded, for instance, congressional efforts in the last two years to reform the defense acquisition system -- including reforms in the House-passed fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill that he estimates could save $30 billion annually, if enacted.
"It's not just a matter of dollars; it's how you spend them," Skelton said. "You spend [it] all on bows and arrows in a bigger budget, you don't have much. But if you spend them on cyberspace, missiles, etc., you can have something."
But he advocated against cutting the size of the military to rein in spending, as was done two decades ago. The military's end strength, he said, is needed as a hedge against future threats.
"This is the problem with using end strength as a bill-payer -- you never know when you're going to need it," he said.