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Pentagon calls for new round of BRAC
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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, brief the press at the Pentagon, April 10, 2013. Hagel and Dempsey discussed President Barack Obama's budget directive for the 2014 fiscal year and the continuing effects of sequestration on the defense budget. - photo by DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

Special Report: Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Budget Proposal

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2013 - The $526.6 billion base budget request included in President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2014 Defense Department budget proposal reflects "great uncertainty," officials said, but maintains national defense strategy and Pentagon leaders' commitment to careful use of taxpayer dollars. A special report at http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2013/0413_budget/ consolidates American Forces Press Service coverage of the budget request and will be updated as the process continues.

 

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2013 – President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget request for the Defense Department balances competing operational and strategic needs while ensuring the maximization of taxpayer dollars and addressing internal imbalances, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today.

In a joint news conference at the Pentagon with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the secretary said the budget request takes several important steps on the way to fiscal sustainability.

“First, the budget continues to maximize our use of resources,” Hagel said. By changing the way the department operates and reducing support costs, the proposal saves an additional $34 billion over the next five years, he said.

“This savings is on top of the approximately $211 billion in ongoing overhead reductions and business efficiencies identified in the last two budget requests, which are still being implemented,” the secretary added.

Other proposed initiatives include restructuring the civilian workforce, overhauling military medical treatment facilities and taking advantage of private-sector health care to control costs, Hagel said.

“These efforts are having some success, with projected health care spending in this budget declining by some 4 percent compared to our budget two years ago,” he noted.

The department is requesting that a new round of base realignments and closures be authorized for 2015, Hagel said. While the BRAC process is imperfect and includes upfront costs, he said, in the long term it results in significant savings.

Other savings come through terminating or reducing poorly performing programs, the secretary said.

“Over the last four years, the department has canceled or curtailed more than 30 major acquisition programs,” he said, “rebalancing our portfolio towards platforms better suited to 21st century security challenges, and making new investments in areas like cyber and advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.”

About a third of the department’s budget request — $170.2 billion — goes to military compensation, Hagel said. The proposed budget would slow the growth of military pay, implementing a 1 percent increase in 2014, down from 1.7 percent in 2013.

The department also is requesting that the beneficiaries’ cost share of the TRICARE military health program increase, particularly for working-age military retirees, Hagel said. The proposed increase would bring premiums “closer to the levels envisioned when the program was first implemented,” he added.

Current fiscal realities demand that tough decisions be made, the secretary said.

“The longer we put this off, the harder it's going to be,” he added, “particularly given the uncertainty that still exists about future levels of defense spending.”

The comprehensive deficit reduction plan contained in the president’s budget proposal would permit Congress to eliminate sequestration, Hagel said.

“That plan averts what would otherwise be another significant reduction in the defense budget, some $52 billion in fiscal year 2014 alone and $500 billion over a decade,” he noted. “Instead, it calls for $150 billion in additional defense savings over 10 years.”

These cuts are back-loaded, with most occurring after fiscal 2018, the secretary said, allowing the department time to manage them without “disproportionate harm to modernization and readiness.”

Budget constraints aren’t going away, Hagel said, and the current fiscal environment calls for clear-headed analysis anchored in the president’s defense strategic guidance. To that end, the secretary said, last month he directed DOD civilian and military leaders to review the department’s strategic assumptions.

The strategic choices and management review is intended to ensure that, in this time of austerity, the department is prepared to defend the nation and its strategic interests, he said.

“No matter the outcome of this budget debate, going forward, every decision must be carefully weighed against our national interests and it must be worthy of the service, sacrifice and loyalty of our men and women in uniform and their families,” Hagel said.

The results of that review are expected at the end of the month, he noted.

 

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Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
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Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
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