What to Expect

Unlike last April’s so-called “Black Monday,” when Defense Secretary Robert Gates presented a list of major program cancellations as part of the Obama Administration’s Fiscal 2010 budget proposal, next week’s submission of the 2011 spending plan to Congress will likely be free of such major perturbations, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. CSBA Fellow Todd Harrison told reporters Tuesday that the areas of interest in the forthcoming spending proposal are whether the Defense Department moves to alter military pay constructs or attempts to tackle its ever-increasing health care bill. He said also look at the Pentagon’s military construction plans now that BRAC restructuring is largely over and at the F-35 strike fighter program, which defense officials are acknowledging requires restructure. (CSBA report) (Also see Losing the Edge)