Nov. 08--WASHINGTON -- Oklahoma military bases could be hit hard by more years of spending cuts, losing uniformed and civilian personnel, training time and maintenance work, according to estimates provided Thursday by Sen. Jim Inhofe's office.
Fort Sill, an artillery training base, could lose an entire brigade -- about 1,400 uniformed personnel -- and Tinker Air Force Base would need fewer civilian workers if the flow of aircraft needing maintenance slowed, Inhofe staff members said.
The Oklahoma estimates -- which are, in some cases, worst-case scenario -- followed a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee about the impact on the military of more automatic budget cuts.
The cuts, known as the sequester, would require the Defense Department to reduce its planned spending over the next 10 years by about $500 billion. That's on top of $500 billion in reductions already mandated; those cuts have already led to the loss of hundreds of positions in Oklahoma.
Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, chief of staff for the U.S. Army, told the committee that the readiness level of Army troops was already the lowest he had seen in his 37 years in the service.
The sequester, he said, is "a horrible way to do business."
All of the top military chiefs agreed, saying the abrupt and inflexible nature of the cuts gave them only bad options.
Inhofe, of Tulsa, the top Republican on the committee, said, "Put simply, top military leaders are telling us that continued cuts to national security spending are making this country less safe. These cuts are making it more likely that our military men and women will not return from the battlefield alive.
"This is immoral."
Budget talks
House and Senate negotiators have a few weeks to find some kind of fix for the military and other departments facing sequester cuts.
However, it was the inability of Republicans and Democrats to reach budget agreements that forced the automatic cuts in 2011 and kept them in place through the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
That same partisan gridlock led to a 16-day partial government shutdown last month. The White House on Thursday released a report detailing some of the effects of that shutdown.
The lost productivity of federal workers was $2 billion -- as those furloughed got paid anyway. At the peak, 850,000 federal workers had to stay home. An estimated $500 million was lost in visitor spending because national parks were closed. The impact on the nation's economic impact could be up to $6 billion.
The military chiefs testifying before the Senate also talked about the economic impacts of sequestration.
Air Force Secretary Mark A. Welsh III said the furloughs caused by sequestration this year cost workers nearly 8 million hours of pay -- pay that didn't go back into local communities. More than 15,000 Air Force workers in Oklahoma were furloughed earlier this year.
Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said that if the sequester cuts are necessary in this fiscal year, only about 25 percent of the Army's brigades would be trained in their "core competencies." That does not count the brigades in Afghanistan, he said.
Fort Sill, near Lawton, is an artillery training base. Vance Air Force Base, near Enid, and Altus Air Force Base are pilot training bases. An Inhofe aide said training at those Air Force bases would likely continue, though at a reduced level if the Air Force reduces its manpower.
The Army was already planning to reduce its troop strength from a war-time high of 570,000 to 490,000, Odierno said. If the sequester cuts remain in place, the ranks would have to be cut by another 70,000 troops, he said.
Copyright 2013 - The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City
