September 26, 2014

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno issued a grave warning about the continued threat of sequestration and its impact on national security. “It will be very difficult for us to lead around the world. Fiscal year 2016 is a breaking point.”

“I’m not seeing peace breaking out all around the world in [2016].”

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 provided some relief from sequestration in FY 2014 and 2015, but unless Congress acts on a broader debt reduction plan, sequestration will return from FY 2016 through 2021. The ramifications of these cuts would be severe.

The meat-axe sequestration cuts would eliminate about $9 billion from Army funding in 2016. Gen. Odierno says those cuts would have a “significant degradation” on the force.

Sequestration is forcing Army leadership to not only make tough choices, but to move forward with drawdowns in more aggressive ways — like notifying soldiers in combat zones that they are being forced out.

If sequestration were to continue, the Army could be reduced to 420,000 soldiers by FY 2019. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, Gen. Odierno said that a force level of 450,000 soldiers would “pose a significant security risk;” at a force level of 420,000, the Army would “not be able to execute the defense strategy.”

MOAA strongly feels that if the services have to continue to drawdown they use the tools Congress has already provided to drawdown with dignity.