Military Sees Dire Future If Congress Doesn't Act on Budget | Military.com: The military services are warning that their combat operations and training will be curtailed severely if Republicans and Democrats fail to end their bickering over the federal budget and pass only a stopgap spending measure, according to Pentagon documents.
Ships won't leave port, aircraft will be grounded, weapons modernization programs will be postponed and critical industrial skills could be blunted should Congress approve another so-called "continuing resolution" for the remainder of the 2017 fiscal year, according to military documents assembled to buttress the Pentagon's plea. These documents were recently sent to members of Congress.
"We will have to cease flight operations within (the United States) at the end of July 2017," the Marine Corps assessment reads. "Cancel three surface ship deployments, resulting in gaps in European and Central Commands," the Navy said. A stopgap bill, according to the Air Force, "limits our ability to rebuild" and increases the risk to the warfighter.
The chiefs of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy are expected to amplify these concerns at a House Armed Services Committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday. They'll argue for Congress to approve a $578 billion defense bill for 2017 and also pass a $30 billion supplement to the legislation that President Donald Trump requested last month.
Senior U.S. military officials have cautioned many times before about the need for Congress to avoid stopgap measures and do its job of passing individual spending bills. Yet the deep ideological divides have stoked worries that another continuing resolution is in the military's future.
A temporary government-wide spending bill approved late last year runs out at midnight April 28.
