Fiscal Cliff Blog (Day 3): Charting Defense-Related Developments as Lawmakers Seek Deal

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, International, Policy Tags: ,

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., speaks as (L-R) Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. John Thune, R-S.C., Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., listen during a news briefing earlier this month. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Defense News has been charting efforts to avoid the dreaded fiscal cliff and, possibly, the $500 billion in Pentagon budget cuts set to kick in on Wednesday (Jan. 2).

The House and Senate have approved a bill negotiated by Vice President Joe Biden and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., that would extend most set-to-expire tax cuts for all Americans except for individuals who make more than $400,000 annually and couples who earn more than $450,000. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., became a secondary negotiator. It delays the sequestration cuts to planned Defense Department spending — and an equal amount of domestic cuts that also are set to take effect Jan. 2 — by two months.

Below is our live blog of defense-related developments. We hope you will share the link with others, and check DefenseNews.com for full coverage.

11:05 a.m. (Tuesday): BREAKING: The House on Jan. 1 approved the Biden-McConnell measure that partially averts the fiscal cliff and delays pending cuts to planned Pentagon spending until March. It now goes to the president for his signature. Full coverage soon at DefenseNews.com.

7:05 p.m. (Tuesday): House GOP leaders will whip votes on a spending cuts amendment to see if there are 218 votes in the Republican caucus. If not, it appears Biden-McConnell will be brought to an up-or-down vote. The deal is not dead yet. But sequestration remains the law of the land. For now.

3:35 p.m. (Tuesday): The Congressional Budget Office has scored the Biden-McConnell bill. CBO determined it would add to the deficit, and features over 40 times more revenues to cuts. GOP House members want to change that, putting the legislation in jeopardy.

3:30 p.m. (Tuesday): BREAKING: The deal could be in jeopardy as House Republicans express their disgust. GOP lawmakers want spending cuts, and a lot of them. Could the massive defense budget be a target for the hungry GOP wolves? House could amend the bill and send it back to the Senate. As crafted, the measure could have a tough time passing the House.

11:20 a.m. (Tuesday): The White House announces Biden will attend a 12:15 p.m. House Democratic caucus meeting about the fiscal cliff legislation. The search for and finalizing of support is well under way.

11:15 a.m. (Tuesday): The House GOP leadership has released its floor schedule for Tuesday. The Biden-McConnell bill is not included on the docket. Yet. House members say they want time to review the legislation.

11:03 a.m. (Tuesday): The Biden-McConnell bill sets March 1 as the new sequestration deadline, with an implementation date of March 27 if federal spending reduction targets are not met in January or February. More

Defense Spending is a Hostage in Partisan Standoff Over List of Fiscal Cliff Issues

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, International, Policy Tags: ,

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., told Defense News on Sunday that every proposal to delay or void pending Pentagon cuts is

Senate Republican and Democratic leaders — at least publicly — agree turning off pending across-the-board cuts to planned Pentagon spending should be included in a final fiscal cliff package. But the two political parties seem miles apart on how to find the funds needed to cancel or delay them. More

Senate Republicans Reject Democrats’ Two-Year Sequestration Delay

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, International, Policy Tags: ,

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, told Defense News turning off the defense sequester cuts with new tax revenue is a "non-starter." (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

Senate Republicans on Sunday rejected Democrats’ proposal to delay massive cuts to planned defense and domestic spending, using new tax revenues to pay for the change, lawmakers said.

GOP senators emerged from a closed-door meeting on avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff and told reporters Democratic Senate leaders put a two-year delay to pending twin $500 billion cuts to projected spending on Pentagon and domestic programs.

“My understanding is the other side put up a two-year delay that would have been paid for by $600 billion in new tax revenues,” Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, told Defense News as she departed the GOP caucus meeting. More

Sen. Reid Exits Fiscal Cliff, Sequestration Talks Only to Return Hours Later

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, Industry, International, Policy Tags: ,

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., makes his way to a meeting of the Senate Democratic Conference as Congress continues a weekend session in the hopes of agreeing on a deal to avert the 'fiscal cliff." (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

And then there were two. And then, suddenly, three again.

Talks on avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff and massive cuts to projected federal spending briefly lost another participant Sunday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., signaled he would take a backseat and allow Senate GOP leaders and the White House to seek an accord.

“I wish them luck,” Reid said on the Senate floor shortly after 2 p.m. of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., and the Obama White House. “There are still serious differences” between the two sides, Reid said.

Reid’s departure from negotiations followed that of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, just before Christmas when his own GOP caucus opted against supporting a plan he intended to bring to a vote to raise tax rates on individual earners who make more than $1 million annually. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has never been a major player.

“We are not where we could come forward and say, ‘We have this for you’,” Reid told a packed Senate chamber on a rare working Sunday. “I’m not overly optimistic that we can get something done. I’m cautiously optimistic that we can get something done.”

But by 5 p.m., as he emerged from a closed party caucus meeting, Reid appeared to be re-engaging. More

Rapid Runway Repairs for Taiwan

By Wendell Minnick in Intercepts Tags: , , ,

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency has awarded Rapid Runway Repair, Inc., Delhi, La., a $13 million contract to supply the Taiwan Air Force with fiberglass mat rapid runway kits. The announcement was made December 27.

Work to be completed by June 30, 2014. AFLCMC/WFG,
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity.

This is not the first procurement by Taiwan’s Air Force of these types of kits. In May 2010, Hualien Airbase personnel demonstrated the use of a rapid runway repair system it had procured from U.S.-based Colt Rapid Mat in 2002 for $43 million.

The kits were procured to repair runways quickly after an aerial bombardment from China. China has 1,500 Dong Feng 11/15 short-range ballistic missiles targeting the island.

It is unclear how many rapid runway kits Taiwan has procured.

Sequestration Watch: $500 Billion, Across-the-Board Defense Cuts Increasingly Likely

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, International, Policy Tags: ,

House Speaker John Boehner (center) reportedly believes his GOP caucus would allow big defense cuts to occur without an equal amount of domestic cuts that Democrats are unlikely to support. And that makes the military cuts now increasingly likely. (Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Sequestration is now very likely. Your Intercepts correspondent was away at a somewhat secure, somewhat undisclosed location for a few days  celebrating Christmas. Upon his return, the likelihood that massive defense cuts will be triggered this week seemed to grow exponentially.    More

China’s New Y-20 Heavy Lift Transport Revealed

By Wendell Minnick in Intercepts Tags: , , ,

New photos show China’s new Y-20 heavy lift military transport. The photos were posted on various Chinese-language military blogs, including Air Force World and Huanqiu. China’s military needs a heavy lift transport to deal with the challenges of operating beyond Chinese airspace. There is also a requirement for a heavy lift transport to respond to domestic emergencies, such as the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.

Taiwan and China Move Closer to Peace Accord?

By Wendell Minnick in Intercepts Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Local news reports indicate China is pushing Taiwan harder on a peace accord that would abolish any attempt by Taiwan “secessionists” to abandon unification and declare independence. However, unless China reduces and/or eliminates the 1,500 short-range ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan, any deal looks unlikely.

According to the Talk of the Day, as reported by the Central News Agency, China is pushing beyond the dozen or so economic and trade agreements signed since 2008 to something more political in nature.

Sun Ya-fu, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office under China’s State Council, publicly urged the two sides at a seminar on December 15 in Taipei to sign a peace accord to “jointly share the duty and obligation of avoiding national secession.”

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Deputy Minister Chang Hsien-yao responded by urging China to treat the existence of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in a “pragmatic manner.”

Photo of the Day: Dec. 21, 2012

By Zachary Fryer-Biggs in Intercepts

(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

If reports coming out of the White House are true, say hello to the next U.S. Secretary of State.  More after the break: More

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