NORFOLK, Va. — With less than three weeks to go until the end of the current fiscal year, lawmakers are considering a six-month stop-gap budget measure which would freeze Fiscal Year 2025 spending at FY24 levels.
House Speaker Mike Johnson's plan would set up a six-month continuing resolution (CR), and link that with legislation known as the SAVE Act -- backed by former President Donald Trump and hardline conservatives -- which imposes stricter proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote.
But Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a letter to key members of Congress over the weekend that passage of a CR would have widespread and devastating effects on the Defense Department.
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Austin said that passing a CR that caps spending at 2024 levels will hurt thousands of defense programs, damage military recruiting, and amount to a $6 billion cut.
"A six-month continuing resolution is just malpractice, malfeasance, incompetence," said Professor Bob McNab, Chair of the Department of Economics and Director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy at Old Dominion University.
In an interview with 13 News Now, McNab said the military and Hampton Roads defense contractors would be especially hard hit by a CR.
"If the federal government wants to build another Virginia-class submarine, if the federal government wanted to do more maintenance of ships based in Hampton Roads, if the federal government wanted to fly more, train pilots more, train Marines more... they couldn't, because the continuing resolution essentially locks them in place," he said.
The clock is ticking.
When lawmakers return to work on Tuesday following their August recess, they will have just 20 calendar days to resolve the budget impasse, or, put the nation at risk for a government shutdown.