Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004060532
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
Also Thursday, the Defense Department asked Congress for new powers to reduce the officer corps, including authority to demote some officers to enlisted status if they refuse a transfer from active duty to the reserves.
The department proposed reducing its oversight of defense contractors as a cost-saving measure and called on Congress to give the Pentagon more leeway in managing its budget.
Frustrated with the administration's fiscal 1991 defense budget and with proposed adjustments circulating on Capitol Hill, Sens. William Cohen of Maine and John McCain of Arizona recommended a leaner framework, including cutbacks for the B-2 Stealth bomber and land-based nuclear missiles.
They propose keeping military spending basically stable over the next five years compared to the administration's recommendation of modest increases of 2 percent or less each year - less than the probable rate of inflation.
Following the senators' plan would mean cutting about $50 billion from proposed military spending during the five years, said Cohen and McCain, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The GOP senators' call for a comprehensive defense strategy and further reductions in spending came on the heels of a series of congressional attacks on Bush's military budget and increasing opposition to the administration's favored strategic weapons.
McCain said at the senators' news conference, "Unfortunately, the administration and our leadership here in Congress has failed to come up with a comprehensive plan."
He and Cohen discounted Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's position that this is a transitional year and the Bush administration should wait before making major cuts in the Pentagon budget.
"By waiting another year . . . we run the risk of having numbers plucked out of the air arbitrarily and then being forced to cut and paste our defense structure to meet budget numbers," Cohen said.
Asked about the pace of Pentagon recommendations for change, McCain said, "Bureaucracies respond with incredible glacial-like speed."
Cheney, when told of the Cohen-McCain proposal Thursday, defended his own as "a responsible plan that does in fact respond to the developments we've seen in the world in the last six months."
He also said that while no decision has been made to submit a revised Pentagon budget for 1991, the results of major aircraft reviews may lead to piecemeal proposals to further reduce 1991 spending.
The proposals to reduce the officers corps were contained in a pair of reports to Congress that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said were aimed at improving Pentagon management, limiting wasteful spending and improving relations between the department and Congress.
Donald Atwood, the deputy defense secretary, said the department needs wider authority to reduce the officer ranks in order to maintain a balanced force as troops are demobilized. The force will shrink by at least 90,000 people over the next two years, he said, and more cuts are likely in the years beyond.
He did not say how many officers might be cut.
Atwood said the personnel proposals, which include incentives for officers to voluntarily leave the service, seek to avoid harming morale in the all-volunteer force.
"These are people who have decided to make the military their career, and we need to have the flexibility to let them leave with honor, with dignity and with some kind of a financial benefit," Atwood told a news conference.
The department recently proposed to Congress that enlisted personnel who are forced out of the service be given severance pay. Currently only officers qualify for severance benefits.
Atwood also said the Pentagon was seeking legislative authority to reduce its monitoring of contractors' work. He said this would make the defense acquisition process more like a commercial business and thus more cost effective.
He said current law forces the Pentagon to use more inspectors and auditors of suppliers' work than is necessary to ensure the work is performed properly.
"We almost have to assume there's a dishonest atmosphere out there" among contractors, he said. "We believe that by reducing the degree of inspections and audits that we put on these contractors, we can save money and we feel we'll get better products."
Cheney, speaking at the same news conference, said that while the Pentagon could improve its own management system, Congress was partly to blame for inefficiencies in the department.
In a 41-page policy paper sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday, Cheney decried the "tyranny of the annual budget review" by Congress. He said the six major committees that deliberate on the defense budget every year should dwell more on overall military goals and less on the particulars of individual weapons programs.
Cheney said the congressional budget writers give the Pentagon sometimes contradictory instructions and require too much paperwork to justify budget requests. He recommended that Congress appropriate defense money for two-year periods instead of every year.
by CNB