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WPAFB escapes cuts in latest budget plan

GOP, aerospace experts say Obama’s budget ignores 2013 reductions.

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By John Nolan and Jessica Wehrmen
Staff Writer 9:30 PM Monday, February 13, 2012

President Barack Obama’s goal of building a smaller, more agile and technologically capable military is reflected in a 2013 budget request that cuts certain aircraft and weapons systems such as the Global Hawk, shrinks service staffing — particularly in the Army and Marines — and reduces about $1 billion in Air Force research money.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was relatively unscathed, though the plan could get substantially overhauled by Congress.

“From what we’ve seen of the budget documents released so far, Wright-Patterson seems to be facing level funding in the next fiscal year, under the president’s budget,” said Michael Gessel, a Washington-based vice president of the Dayton Development Coalition.

Republicans and the aerospace industry complained that Obama’s budget doesn’t deal with $500 billion in additional defense cuts due to begin in 2013.

Those cuts are to begin later because congressional budget-cutters failed to reach agreement on spending reductions in late 2011. That second round could put 350,000 aerospace and defense workers out of work across the country, the Aerospace Industries Association said Monday.

“Essentially, the president has taken a pass on being accountable for what these cuts could do to our military and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The president’s 2013 defense budget, released on Monday, maps out $487 billion in defense spending cuts during the next decade.

But the spending plan reflects the impact of tough choices, including a more than $1 billion proposed reduction in the Air Force’s total outlay for research, development, test and evaluation. It would drop from $26.7 billion in the current budget to $25.5 billion for the federal fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.

Obama’s 2013 budget maintains most, though not all, of the key spending accounts used by the Air Force Research Laboratory, headquartered at Wright-Patterson. The applied research account funding would drop to $1.1 billion, down from $1.2 billion in the current fiscal year, and advanced technology and development funding would fall to $596,737 from the current $685,702.

Obama proposed a military pay increase of 1.7 percent, saying that is in line with what the private sector is doing.

But Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta also proposed a plan Monday that would nearly quadruple the health insurance fees paid by many working-age military retirees during the next five years.

Initially, the Pentagon proposes that the annual family health insurance fee for military retirees making more than $45,179 in annual retirement pay — typical for middle-ranking officers who retire after decades of service — be increased to $600 from $520 in the fiscal year 2013. The Pentagon proposes that the fee be stepped up every year until it reaches $2,048 in 2017.

The fees are for Tricare Prime, the most beneficent of the Pentagon’s generous health care programs. But the Pentagon, which spends $50 billion a year on health care costs, has targeted working-age military retirees as the people who can most afford to pay more. Most of them pursue second careers after leaving the military.

The Pentagon calculates that its savings in health insurance costs next year will be $4.1 billion.

Republicans have said they think Obama’s defense spending reductions will undermine the military and its current capability to fight more than one war at once.

Obama has said his goal is to build a smaller, more agile and technologically capable military ready for future warfare.

Still, Congress required the $487 billion in defense spending cuts over a decade, as part of the Budget Control Act enacted in 2011.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., said Monday that the overall budget — not just the defense portion — reflects Obama’s “failed policies.”

“Our nation needs Washington to demonstrate some courage with a budget that honestly addresses the near- and long-term challenges we face,” Boehner said. “Instead, the president offered a collection of rehashes, gimmicks and tax increases that will make our economy worse.”

Obama’s 2013 defense budget of $613.9 billion includes a basic budget of $525.4 billion and $88.5 billion for overseas contingency operations, primarily in Afghanistan. That is down from a $531 billion basic budget and a $115.1 billion overseas budget in the current fiscal year, the Defense Department said.

Obama also will ask Congress to authorize two rounds of base realignment and closure (BRAC) reviews in 2013 and again in 2015, to consider closing some bases and relocating programs to bases that will stay open. The nation’s 2005 BRAC round brought Wright-Patterson a net gain of 1,200 jobs, including the relocated Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and additional sensors research programs.

The president proposed $140.3 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, up from $126.9 billion this year, which anticipates increased health care needs for veterans.

The budget projects that about 610,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will receive health care through the VA’s hospitals and clinics this fiscal year.

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