Murtha targets military bonuses for fiscal 2010 cuts

Faced with immense pressure to trim its budget, the Pentagon should cut enlistment bonuses to military personnel, end its reliance on emergency supplemental spending and get serious about reforming its acquisition processes, a top congressional appropriator said Wednesday.

"What I'm saying is, there's going to be less defense spending," House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., said in a speech at the Center for American Progress on defense priorities.

"I'm not going to predict how much of a change we'll see in the coming years, but I do know that defense spending is going to be under severe pressure."

All four armed services and all six reserve components met or exceeded their recruiting goals for November, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. Military officials have noted that rising unemployment during the recession has helped the services attract recruits.

Murtha said the Army and Marine Corps spent about $2 billion on enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses since 2007 -- incentives lawmakers and service officials deemed necessary to help meet recruiting and retention goals.

But Murtha said bonuses were one area that could produce savings as forces are drawn down in Iraq. "If we draw down, we ought to be able to get rid of the bonuses," he said.

"The other thing is we have to buy a quantity [of weapons or weapons platforms] that gives us stability in industry so they can get the price down," Murtha added. "We've got to figure out a way to fix the acquisition process so that we do it the right way the first time."

The increased costs of major acquisition programs has plagued the Pentagon for years, Steven Kosiak, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said.

"There are really no signs that it's getting any better," he said. "I would totally agree that is absolutely a critical area for the new administration to get a grip on."

But he said the military could find savings by reforming its healthcare system, addressing military compensation, and reducing operations and maintenance costs.

The Bush administration has drafted a $581 billion defense budget request for fiscal 2010 and plans to send Congress an additional $80 billion request for fiscal 2009 emergency supplemental spending next month, mainly to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a retired vice admiral who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. He appeared with Murtha at the center.

"The supplementals have got to go," Murtha said. "We cannot have a sensible budget, a sensible appropriations, if we don't get rid of the supplementals."

Murtha also assailed a Bush administration plan to dedicate 20,000 troops to respond to homeland security missions inside the United States.

"What the hell does that mean?" he charged. "I don't have a clue what that means. We're the guys that fund it; I ought to know what they have in mind."

Reacting to Sestak's disclosures, Kosiak described the fiscal 2010 budget request and additional emergency spending as only markers. He said the incoming Obama administration will likely make changes to them, but by how much is unclear.

Kosiak said he does not expect Congress or the Obama administration to act quickly on the emergency funding, mainly because the Pentagon has $66 billion in emergency funds that should last until summer.

"There's no crisis here for getting that enacted," he said.