On Wednesday, Congress passed a second continuing resolution, a temporary spending bill that will only fund the federal government until February 2, 2024. This is the second time they have used the stopgap measure this year, following one passed on September 30 that only provided funding until Friday. Lawmakers have resorted to these temporary funding bills due to intransigence over the contents of a series of massive budget bills that together comprise the fiscal year 2024 budget.
While the spending extensions have averted a government shutdown, they have still thrown chaos into many of the programs for which they will provide funding, not only due to the uncertainty of the flow of funds after February 2, but also because the bills are based on fiscal year 2023 spending levels and not those projected for the 2024 budget.
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Radha Plumb told a Pentagon-focused US media outlet on Thursday that everything from shipbuilding to weapons manufacturing would be affected by the problem.
“It’s the additive domino effect of delays, and the particularly hard hit on the sub-tier supplier base that really on the acquisition side compounds the problem,” she said.
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante added that continuing resolutions could have a “devastating effect” on the military-industrial complex, even triggering layoffs.
“If the [continuing resolution] ends in January … the money that goes will not flow out to the commands that do the contracting probably until about May because of all the processes,” said LaPlante. “Nothing happens without contracting.”
Some of the programs that could suffer include efforts to replace the artillery and missile stockpiles given to Ukraine and Israel in 2023; new anti-drone systems scheduled for delivery in 2024 and 2025; new anti-air missiles and cruise missiles; three separate shipbuilding programs for the US Navy; and the Air Force’s C3 battle management system, part of a Pentagon plan to make a unified battle network that uses artificial intelligence.
An artist rendering of the future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.
© Wikipedia / U.S. Navy illustration
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who was sworn in earlier this month, told lawmakers that the continuing resolution (CR) would interrupt the shipbuilding programs for the US Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarine, Constellation-class frigate and a new submarine tender.
“We have nine ships in the budget request, and we won’t be able to start on four of them under a CR,” she said.
A notable exception explicitly carved into the bill was the keel-laying for the USS Wisconsin, the second Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. Construction on the Ohio-class replacement is scheduled to start this year at the cost of $621 million.