The Air Force Association Daily Report

Posted By: Dan McGuire
Date: 5/26/09 4:13a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

There are a number of items covered in today's Daily Report. A few quotes. The full report is available at the link. "It's become clear that lawmakers are becoming increasingly irate that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has issued a budget proposal with striking force structure changes across the board, but particularly for the Air Force, without providing evidence of studied analysis and review." "At one point last week at the House Armed Services air-land forces panel hearing on Air Force modernization, chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) declared that the 2010 defense budget has "serious policy implications" for future force structure and yet the "request did not include any information or data regarding plans, programs, or budgets for Fiscal Year 2011 and beyond." Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), ranking member of the panel, suggested, "It appears to me that in many cases, funding limitations in the FY 2010 budget topline were the sole driver in major policy decisions." "We can't see the strategy. We can't see the assumptions. We can't see the plan for the out years." Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) went further, describing that hearing and others as "a series of testimonies that can only lightly be described as incredible Pentagon double talk." Notice that these and most of the rest of the complaints are from Democratic Lawmakers.