Army Chief of Staff nominee Gen. James McConville smoothly handled his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing Thursday, but warned lawmakers that a potential fiscal 2020 budget stalemate would derail planned Army modernization initiatives, Defense News reported.
McConville, the service’s current vice chief, cautioned the committee that if Congress doesn’t approve spending bills on time, it would delay or disrupt about 118 Army programs, effectively curtailing modernization plans.
“We have about 85 programs — they’re all modernization programs — that can’t start,” he said. “We have 33 production increases that won’t happen, commands will slow down training because they don’t know how much money they’re going to have.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) asked what would happen if automatic budget caps triggered through sequestration kicked in, requiring DOD to operate at $71 billion below fiscal 2019 levels.
“We are at a critical point in modernization where we are starting to bring on systems which we believe we must have in great power competition and to avoid great power conflict,” McConville said. “We need the budget, and we need the budget we requested.”
Army photo by Sgt. Ryan Jenkins
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