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Work, addressing a think-tank defense
conference, said unless Congress is able to provide the Pentagon
with greater budgetary stability and certainty, it runs the risk
of building a military that "increasingly misaligned with the
strategic environment."
Work's comments come as the Pentagon, which is under orders to
cut nearly $1 trillion in projected spending over a decade,
faces another year of budgetary uncertainty.
Although the 2015 fiscal year has started, Congress has not yet
appropriated funding for the government, including defense,
which has a base budget of $496 billion.
Instead, the government is funded with a resolution that
continues spending based on last year's priorities through Dec.
11. Congress will have to decide whether to approve 2015
appropriations or extend the continuing resolution to keep the
government running beyond that point.
The Pentagon also is preparing its fiscal 2016 budget, which
will be released in February. Under current law,
across-the-board spending cuts are due to return in 2016 and the
department is facing uncertainty about whether Congress will
ease the spending requirements as it did last year or let the
cuts occur.
"We need funding passed at the president's budget level," Work
told the conference at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies. "We need flexibility in the way we manage
the force, and we need budget stability."
(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
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