Posted BY: | NwoReport
The fiscal year 2023 budget and the proposed 2024 budget include substantial increases in funding for the Air Force, but the House of Representatives debt ceiling proposal that would return federal spending to 2022 levels next year would hobble the Air and Space Forces, a senior official said May 18.
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Andrew Hunter said the 2024 budget request includes 100 to 120 initiatives supporting the service’s seven operational imperatives.
“Some large, some small, but all actually critical and essential to our future operational capability,” he said. So far, members of Congress and defense committees have been supportive of the service’s $185 billion request, but there are real risks of a debt default or a deal reminiscent of sequestration, he said at George Mason University’s Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting.
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“And what we saw [during sequestration] is a sudden drop in government spending, and we had to do things like furloughs, we had to had to really scale back spending,” he said. “We had to defer activity.” It had a huge impact on research and development, he added.
“I think you would see a huge hit to our research and development, which is right now one of our priority areas of pursuit,” he continued.
The Space Force, which is seeking $30 billion in funding for 2024, would suffer as well, he noted.
