The dividends the Air Force receives from the exchange service to help fund its morale, welfare, and recreations efforts are trending down, Arthur Myers, USAF’s director of services, told a House Armed Services panel last week. Myers noted that five years ago dividends “averaged nearly $90 million per year.” In 2006, however, he said the Air Force “received only $73 million and the current exchange financial plan projects less than $57 million.” Myers explained that this reduction already has had “a negative impact on our programs in the field.” He predicts that “even a partial recovery will be a long time coming.”
A legislative standoff has led to a lapse in a $4.26 billion small business innovation contracting program widely used by the Air Force and could spell the end of it entirely, industry sources warned Air & Space Forces Magazine.
