Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently commented on the need for Congress to approve a Defense Department budget at an Air Force Association breakfast in in Arlington, Virginia.
Selva said this month marks the ninth year that the Defense Department has been obliged to operate under a continuing resolution, which expires on April 28, and he highlighted the problem of working under transient conditions, a Defense Department release said.
“This is the longest period in American history where the Congress has been unable to deliver a budget on schedule,” Selva said. “We’ve had the longest period in American history where we have not complied with constitutional budget order and we have the first administration in the history of the United States that has transitioned under a continuing resolution.”
Selva emphasized that the respective authorizing bodies have fulfilled their obligations, having enacted measures to empower the DOD to recruit more members, purchase equipment and fund more operations. It is in the appropriations committee where the stalemate on the budget has occurred, he said in the release.
“If the appropriators do not fund the aspirational statements in the authorization act, they cannot become reality,” Selva said, adding that functioning under temporary measures wastes resources.
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