The Press Enterprise: March officials say automatic funding cuts would hurt mission
In Congressional testimony this week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that automatic cuts — known as sequestration — could trigger furlough days for as many as 800,000 civilian employees. It’s not yet known how that would play out at March ARB. Base spokesman Lt. Col. Donald Traud said he expects to receive more information next week.
Department of Defense comptroller Robert F. Hale said in a news conference Wednesday, Feb. 20, that the readiness of most non-deployed Air Force units will be unsatisfactory by the end of the year if sequestration takes effect.
Congressman Mark Takano, D-Riverside, said cutbacks in maintenance and construction would reach beyond the base, affecting local contractors. Work has been ongoing in recent years to rehabilitate the base’s aging buildings.
Takano, who was having lunch at Zacateca’s Mexican restaurant in Riverside after a news conference Tuesday morning, said he is trying to be optimistic that sequestration could be avoided. The automatic cuts it will bring to the military and domestic programs — $800 billion and $700 billion, respectively, over 10 years — were put into place in 2011 as an incentive for lawmakers to come up with a more balanced plan for reducing the national budget deficit. Sequestration mandates across-the-board reductions, with no flexibility.
An alternative plan has not yet emerged, and Takano said he is not sure it will before March 1, when the cuts are due to take effect.
“Rank and file members (of Congress) really don’t have a clue what’s going to happen,” Takano said. “I’m alarmed by the lack of evidence of talks even occurring. I’m frankly astonished that we’re on a weeklong recess right now. I think it’s irresponsible.”