Subcommittee on Military Personnel

“Impact to Military End Strength in a Budget Constrained Environment”

2/27/13, 2:00pm, Rayburn 2118

Witnesses:
- Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, Deputy Chief of Staff G-1, USA
- Lt. Gen. Darrell Jones, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel & Service, USAF
- Lt. Gen. Robert Milstead Jr., Deputy Commandant, Manpower & Reserve Affairs, USMC
- Vice Admiral Scott Van Buskirk, Deputy CNO, Manpower, Personnel, Training & Education, USN
- Mrs. Jessica Wright, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness, DoD

Summary:

Sequestration along with the extension of the CR would leave massive funding shortfalls in O&M
accounts that fund critical personnel, training and readiness programs. There is a fundamental lack of
predictability in the budget cycle. Although the President used his authority to exempt military personal
accounts from sequestration, second and third order effects to the total force and their families are
detrimental and may be difficult to reverse. The current end-strength floors prevent us from managing
our force and restrict our ability to responsibly draw down our military; recruitment and retention may
also be jeopardized, both in numbers as well as talent. The military may be forced to repurpose military
manpower to offset the hiring freezes and workforce vacancies expected due to budget constraints,
which is contrary to the Department’s workforce management policies. Negative morale, financial
effects, decline in productivity and loss of critical civilian talent is something to be expected. Pay raise is
also diminished, ending up at about a 1% increase as opposed to the 1.8% increase authorized in law.
There is an ultimate misalignment in funding that leads to inadequacy in carrying out programs, training,
and readiness in the military.

Opening Statements:

Hon. Jessica Wright

A. CR and Sequestration
a. $46 billion in cuts across Department, roughly 9% of the total budget for FY 13
b. Massive funding shortfalls in O&M accounts
c. Military personnel
i. Protected, but second and third order effects to the total force and their
families are detrimental and difficult to reverse
ii. Will receive reduced training, diminishing readiness and morale
B. Impacts on total force
a. No military member will be furloughed
i. To offset this exemption, severe budget decrements are taken elsewhere
1. Basic pay increase will be 1%, smaller than the 1.8% estimate
b. Military recruitment
i. Reductions to advertisement and recruiting support/ops accounts
ii. Discourages high-quality recruits from joining/retention of talented Service
men and women
c. Civilian Workforce
i. Hiring freezes, released term and temp employees, reduced base training
operating services, cancelled training, reduced equipment maintenance
 ii. May have to repurpose military man power to make up for it
d. Difficult to maintain a balanced total force
i. Without ability to properly forecast and plan, Department will be challenged
to be good stewards of American taxpayer dollars
C. Total Force Readiness
a. Readiness will be gradually depleted
i. Limited training resources will be focused on preparation of forces about to
engage in ops missions
1. Rest of the force will sit idle without sufficient resources
ii. 2/3 of Army active combat teams will be at reduced readiness levels
iii. USS Harry S. Truman cancelled deployment to CENTCOM AOR
iv. Air Force flying hours program will be reduced below acceptable levels
D. Support to Total Force
a. Medical and family readiness negatively impacted
i. Loss of $3 Billion in resources from Defense Health Program
ii. Reduced medical facility maintenance/needed restoration projects
b. DoD Education Activity/ Child Care
i. DoD will implement sequestration in a manner that preserves ability to
provide students with a full year of academic credit
ii. Reduced tuition assistance, reduced child care support

Lt. Gen. Bromberg

A. Sequestration/CR
a. General total reduction of approx. 189,000 soldiers across all components
b. Fundamental lack of predictability
B. Military Personnel, Army
a. MPA will not be adversely affected
i. But military pay, housing allowances, subsistence are adequately funded
b. Reassessment of current drawdown plan and size of Army
C. Operations, Army
a. Reductions in operation/maintenance; impacts readiness
b. Cancellations/reductions in initial military training will create backlog
i. Loss of training is not recoverable
c. Reductions will adversely affect USMEPCOM
D. Army’s most critical precept is to sustain accessions of new enlisted Soldiers and officers to
avoid creating gaps in grades and skills that are not easily correctable
E. Cuts in medical readiness

VADM Van Buskirk

A. Sequestration/CR
a. Navy will operate at lower levels of effectiveness
b. Will affect ability to attract, recruit, assign and balance workforce
B. Near-Term Impacts
a. Delayed deployments
i. Creates uncertainty, stress and affects family budgets
b. Ready forces will need to operate at higher tempo, assume additional workload
c. Reductions in civilian manpower; hiring freezes, terminations
 d. Availability of civilian job opportunities will come to a standstill
e. Administrative furlough will affect 200,000 men/women
C. Long-Term Impacts
a. Reductions would fundamentally change Navy
i. Size would decrease further (could be as many as 50 ships)
ii. Training backlog for students, which affects Sailor distribution and readiness

Lt. Gen. Milstead

A. Sequestration/CR
a. devastating impact on our Nation's readiness both short- and long-term
i. creates unacceptable risk to our National Strategy, forces, people, and our
country
b. civilian furloughs reduce ability to bring in Marine recruits, which impact readiness
c. training and family programs suffer, teachers, therapists, gate guards are short
B. Military Personnel
a. Plan to reduce end strength by no more than 5,000 Marines per year
i. Voluntary and involuntary separations will be hard to control
C. O&M
a. Devastating impacts on training, equipment, overall readiness, to worsen over time
D. Reserves
a. Reductions will impact ability to augment, reinforce and sustain support to Active
Component
b. Reserve Component may be unable to meet minimum staffing requirements of
critical leadership
c. Family readiness programs may require reduced hours or complete shutdown
E. Civilian Marines
a. Possible furlough up to 19,600 Civilian Marines
b. Negative impacts to depots, bases and stations
c. Employment opportunities will be reduced/frozen/eliminated

Lt. Gen. Jones

A. Near Term Actions
a. Civilian hiring freezes
b. USAF considering releasing 990 temp employees, 2,160 term employees, 260 re-
employed annuitants
c. Reduction of MAJCOM and COCOM by 10% on an annual basis
d. USAF has deferred all non-emergency FSRM projects, cutting 50% in annual
spending - Includes interrupting 92 projects at 52 installations
B. Long Term Actions
a. Civilian furloughs up to 180,000 civilian Airmen for 22 days
b. AF Base
i. Reduced base funded flying hours by 18% or 30% of remaining funds
ii. Air Education and Training Command will curtail training courses like
Transition Pilot, Instructor Pilot and Aircraft Commander upgrades
iii. Backlog to depot maintenance pipeline, causing disruption to aircraft
availability
C. Impact to Readiness
a. Reduction in flight hours means severe unit combat readiness degradation
 b. 2/3 active duty combat units will not be mission ready by end of 2013
c. Curtailing advanced and initial flying training courses threaten to clog/extend flight-
training pipeline
D. Reserve Component
a. AF Reserve civilian personnel furloughs and reductions of equipment, maintenance
and flying hours affects support of training activities and readiness
E. End Strength/Force Management
a. Reduce number of airmen serving the nation
i. Strategy of leveraging voluntary programs first, offering incentive programs,
and executing involuntary actions only if required
F. Shortfalls and gaps in recruitment
G. Airman developmental education programs, family and quality of life programs are affected,
reduced
a. Skill gaps, skill retainment are negatively affected
b. Childcare programs are curtailed