A “Singularly Stupid Way” of Budgeting

Planning for the Budget Control Act’s looming sequester to take effect in January is really “kind of irrelevant” because of the inflexibility in the law, said Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s acquisition executive, reported Politico. “If you want to know what will happen to your program, look at how much money you expect to have in your budget next year and cut 11 percent,” said Kendall at a defense industry conference in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 5. He called sequestration “a singularly stupid way to take money out of the defense budget,” according to the newspaper. Kendall said he expects the White House’s budget office to send the report to Congress soon that will detail the effects of sequestration on federal programs, including the US military’s activities, in Fiscal 2013. The Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, signed into law on Aug. 7, mandates this report. Although Kendall said the Pentagon still has not completed a detailed master plan for sequestration, he noted that programs with multiyear contracts are going to suffer more than others. “We’re counting on Congress to avoid this,” he said.