Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said the Pentagon will undergo a $52 billion budget cut if sequestration continues into fiscal year 2014.
In a letter to the Senate, Hagel said that the Defense Department will have to reduce its civilian workforce, apply military personnel account cuts and modernization programs interruptions, the American Forces Press Service reported Wednesday.
Hagel said that if sequestration continues in 2014, aside from furloughs, the “DOD will have to consider involuntary reductions-in-force to reduce civilian personnel costs.”
He also writes that if Congress will not pass a bill that will cancel sequestration, “the department will have to make sharp cuts with far-reaching consequences, including limiting combat power, reducing readiness and undermining the national security interests of the United States.”
Hagel added that he supports the White House’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal, which calls for slow military pay raise increase, base realignment and closure programs and higher military retiree healthcare fees .
