ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Ambitious plans for budget reform by the new deputy defense secretary will require help from Congress, says Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute. 

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks has mentioned a long list of potential reforms, including ending a rush in spending at the end of the fiscal year caused by use-it-or-lose-it policies, Eaglen said. This practice can lead to spending on frivolous items, said Eaglen, a national security strategist who once worked at the Association of the U.S. Army. 

Defense analyst Todd Harrison of the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies warns 2021 could be a bleak budget year for the U.S. Army, with a significant risk to modernization efforts and troop strength.

Military leaders are taking on a “holistic review” of troops’ footprint around the world as the U.S. remains focused on “great-power competition,” according to the Pentagon’s top general.

“There’s a very strong argument to be made that we may have forces in places that they shouldn’t be, and we may have forces that are needed in places that they’re not right now,” Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Dec. 2 while speaking with the Brookings Institution. 

The Army will begin 2021 with some confidence about its modernization efforts, said Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, Army deputy chief of staff for resources and plans. 

That may not last. Pasquarette says the Army is engaged in a budgetary balancing act as it tries to grow troop strength, improve readiness and expand capabilities. In the past, reducing modernization was the first choice while preserving troop levels, but this may not work now. 

An upcoming webinar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army will feature the deputy Army chief of staff for resources and planning.

Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, the Army G-8, speaks Nov. 18 as part of The AUSA Noon Report series.

The event begins at noon Eastern. The event is free, but registration is required.

For more information or to register, click here.

The Army exceeded its fiscal year 2020 end strength goal of 485,000 active Army soldiers despite battling a pandemic that forced the service to shut down recruiting stations and slow the process of receiving and training new soldiers and cadets, officials said Oct. 9.

Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, deputy Army chief of staff for personnel, said the end strength for fiscal 2020 topped 485,383 soldiers, a combination of new recruits, soldiers who reenlisted and those who took advantage of a short-term reenlistment option put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Congress has approved a stopgap spending bill that keeps the federal government operating until Dec. 11, an election year move that puts off major decisions on defense and national security issues. 

The legislation was needed as fiscal year 2021 begins Oct. 1 without any full year appropriations bills having been passed by Congress. Under the continuing resolution, federal departments including the Army may continue to spend at fiscal 2020 levels but are severely limited in starting new programs or new phases of existing programs. 

Members of the public can register to view upcoming virtual meetings to discuss capacity challenges facing Arlington National Cemetery, which is quickly running out of space.

The public also can submit comments or feedback before the meetings, which come as the Army is proposing new criteria that would dramatically tighten the eligibility criteria for burial at the cemetery in Virginia.

The Association of the U.S. Army has joined with six other defense-related associations in an appeal to the White House for a 3% to 5% increase in the fiscal year 2022 and 2023 defense budgets. 

An Aug. 4 letter to President Donald Trump says the flat fiscal year 2021 defense budget pending before Congress leaves the services “in an unenviable position of trading off legacy programs to fund future modernization. Those programs will not be fielded and available to the warfighters for several years. That jeopardizes our nation today and in the future.”