Navy secretary calls for cuts in IT spending

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus outlined a range of cost cutting measures, including unspecified cuts in the service’s $1 billion fiscal 2013 IT budget, to conserve funds as the Obama administration and Congress dilly-dally over current budgets and long term fiscal plans.

Mabus, in an all hands message last Friday, said the service faces an “immediate fiscal challenge” due to the lack of a fiscal 2013 appropriations bill, which leaves the Navy operating under a continuing resolution. The stopgap spending bill “locks us into lower fiscal 2012 levels for our operations and maintenance accounts, despite increasing responsibilities, which demand increased resources,” he said.

Faced with a budget crunch, Mabus said, “We must enact prudent, but stringent belt-tightening measures now that will permit us to operate the Navy and Marine Corps through the rest of the year if the CR is extended.”

These measures include:

• Terminating temporary employees, except those engaged in mission critical work;
• Freezing civilian hiring;
• Curtailing administrative contracting support services;
• Cutting back on spending facilities support and modernization;
• Reducing travel;
• Delaying all ship decommissioning and layups.