“That’s a choice between the Devil and the deep blue sea,” General Paul Selva of the US Transportation Command said when asked to choose between increasing Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) or subjecting his budget to sequestration level spending.
“To balance the checkbook, I would take OCO," Selva added.
The US House and Senate Budget Committees are preparing a defense budget that would keep in place sequestration level spending for the Department of Defense’s base budget at approximately $499 billion, but would provide $90 billion in additional contingency funding, according to statements outside the Committee.
The base budget under considerations will also impact the US military’s efficiency, Admiral Cecil Haney of US Strategic Command argued. Not having a long-term budget “will raise havoc in terms of our joint military force capability at large,” he said.
Despite the problems with the OCO fund, Haney acknowledged, “obviously, having more money is better than having less.” He conceded that the proposal to provide additional OCO funding was the better option.
US Cyber Command Commander Admiral Mike Rogers told senators that “clearly you would be presenting us with a challenge” in limiting the base budget.
As a relatively new command force, the US Cyber Command would face challenges building “a long-term, sustainable plan in the face of this ever increasing [cyber]threat,” Rogers explained.
US House Speaker John Boehner told the press on Thursday that he expects the House Budget Committee to pass the 2016 budget within the week. The full budget will likely be taken up by the House of Representatives as a whole body next week, Boehner said.
