DOD to plan for possible deep spending cuts
- By Defense Systems Staff
- Mar 02, 2012
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a House committee that the Defense Department would start planning this summer for potential automatic spending cuts from a budget crisis if Congress doesn't act,
Defense News reports.If Congress fails to raise $1.2 trillion, automatic
spending cuts would start in January 2013, including an additional $500
billion cut automatically from DOD, the article noted.
Panetta said DOD was not doing any planning now for additional defense cuts, with the hopes that Congress would work out a larger deficit-reduction plan that would replace a so-called "sequester" of money, the story said.
"There is not a hell of a lot of planning I can do,” because
sequestration would make automatic and equally distributed cuts across DOD
accounts, using a “meat-axe” approach, he said at a House Budget Committee hearing, the story said.