DOD proposes to freeze the hiring of civilian personnel through fiscal year 2013 and to freeze civilian pay freeze through fiscal year 2012 for a savings of $25 billion over the next 5 years.

The Army's enterprise governance approach supports transforming business operations and obtaining best possible outcomes by using broad collaboration.

if there isn't a baseline accounting of these funds, how will you be able to assess the performance of DOD's goal to cut service contracts by 10 percent in each of the next 3 years, resulting in a savings of $5.7 billion?

Secretary Hale, what other Department-wide efficiency initiatives are subject to the uncertainty of world events?

What happens if the economy picks up, as we all hope it will?

can you provide your projection for annual military pay adjustments through fiscal year 2016 that contributed to your savings estimate?

Secretary Hale, the Army assumed an unemployment rate of over 9 percent through fiscal year 2015.

The DOD effort to increase efficiencies will not wait for the out years.

Secretary Hale, what economic projections were used to justify this rate?

I need to make sure that we are not relying on speculative economic assumptions in order to justify budget cuts.

There will be no mad rush to spend any funds.

We're going to have to reprogram funds from somewhere--I don't know where, for sure yet--in order to meet those.

Only in the current climate here in Washington, DC, can an agency propose a cut in the rate of growth of future budgets and call it a triumph.

We cannot continue to spend what we do not have. We must closely scrutinize every Federal agency--including the Department of Defense (DOD)--to identify and eliminate wasteful or duplicative programs.

The GAO report noted that DOD spends billions of dollars annually on military installations around the world.

We must ensure that military compensation remains highly competitive and recognizes the sacrifices our servicemembers endure.

where can we find the savings of $75 million in the current budget request?

Secretary Westphal, the Army proposes to save $1.5 billion on MILCON costs by sustaining existing facilities, but does not propose a corresponding increase to the facility sustainment account.