NDAA Conference Clash To Come: SASC Says ‘Readiness,’ HASC Says ‘Hope’

[unhappycamper]

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/05/conference-clash-coming-on-ndaa-sasc-dems-say-readiness-hasc-gop-says-hope/



NDAA Conference Clash To Come: SASC Says ‘Readiness,’ HASC Says ‘Hope’
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on May 23, 2014 at 12:55 PM

THE CAPITOL: “We do emphasize readiness,” Sen. Carl Levin told me. “I for one would rather have a smaller force that is ready than a bigger force that is less ready.” With those words — his parting shot as I hounded him through the Capitol’s marble halls after his official press conference yesterday on the annual defense bill — the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee drew a clear battle line with the Republican-controlled House, which cut “operations and maintenance” funds by $1.2 billion to fund a larger force with more generous personnel benefits.

Democrats like the acerbic Rep. Adam Smith say they’re choosing readiness, responsibility, and realism over GOP wishful thinking that will lead to a large but unready “hollow force.” Republicans counter that they’re choosing to fight on in hope of larger defense budgets rather than just resigning themselves to the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

“It is a difference of approach: Do you preserve options now for future budgetary improvements, or do you just assume the budget’s not going to get better?” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, vice-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. We spoke Thursday just hours after the full House had approved HASC’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015.

“The judgment in this bill is to preserve options. You’re right if you do it too long, then the risk is you hollow out the force,” Thornberry told me. “(But) if you bite the bullet now, you may well lose the capability to get it back in the future ( : ) You may lose a production facility, you may lose the workers, you may lose things that you can’t recover.”