European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 05, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday february 5,1991 the stars and stripes Dod still plans troop reductions but seeks 4.2% pay raises for 92 a he 1 wart u a c turn mar. 1 a a a a. A a a. A a a fiscal �?T92 budget department of defense manpower s Aby Janet Howells Tierney Washington Bureau. Washington a the Pentagon continues to plan for a considerable manpower decline in Active and Reserve forces by 1995, even As More than 500,000 . Troops wage War in the Middle East. Defense. Secretary Dick Cheney said the planning for  Levels a is an extremely difficult and complicated task. Probably one of the most difficult management tasks that the defense department  Over the next few years. In fact the Pentagon will almost certainly have to ask for legislative Relief from the end strength limits established by Congress for this fiscal year he said. A i do not believe we re Likely to be Able to meet at the end of this fiscal year the ceilings imposed on us by Cong Ress last year a he said. However there Are no plans for cutbacks in pay and compensation officials said. A a a a a in its proposed budget unveiled monday the Pentagon requests military pay raises of 4.2 percent in fiscal 1992 and 4.7 percent in fiscal 1993. Fiscal years begin oct. 1, but pay raises usually do not take effect until three months later on Jan. 1. The fiscal 1991 pay raise was 4.1 percent. The Pentagon budget request includes $78 billion to pay military personnel in fiscal 1992, which is $1 billion less than 1991. The amount drops to $77.5 billion in 1993. / the armed forces had More than 2 million members on dec. 31, 1990. By the end of fiscal 1995, the defense department expects that number to decline to 1.6 million. That would require a drop of about 400,000 Active duty personnel in the next four  air Force anticipates that it will be Able to meet its fiscal 1991 personnel reduction plan despite the manpower requirements for operation desert storm quo meet its current end strength authorization of 510,000, the air Force still needs to Cut about 20,000 personnel by sept. 30. But if the War drags on closer to that Date the plans May have to be revamped. Officials said air Force personnel managers will continue to use a mixture of methods to meet reduced personnel goals including slowing recruiting tightening re enlistment standards for first term personnel and involuntarily retiring certain officers. By the end of fiscal 1995, the service plans to have about 108,000 fewer personnel on Active duty than the 545,000 it had at the end of fiscal 1990. By sept. 30, the army must reduce its ranks by 37,424 soldiers to meet the fiscal 1991 personnel ceilings of 702,000. Between november and december 1990, 3,320 people left the service but officials Are not optimistic about meeting the congressionally set Levels. A if operation desert storm continues All the milestones will have to be reconsidered a an army official said. A we May get Down to the required numbers but it will take More  the army has been accepting fewer recruits and expects to continue to do so but if a troop draw Down becomes necessary the service May have to resort to involuntary separations. The Navy which has to make compare Lively smaller personnel cuts than the end strength in thousands j \ fy92 fy93 fy94 fy95 army 660 618 577. 536 Navy a a a a t a 551 536 516 510 marines 188 182 176 171 air Force 487 458 445 437 source department of defense a amps Susan hams other services has got a Good jump on the process. Officials do not expect major problems in meeting the Navy a mandated fiscal 1991 goal of 570,500. Reserve troops also face strength cutbacks after the War ends. Reserve Levels will decline from 1.0b8 million in fiscal 1992 to 906,000 by fiscal 1995. A civilian employees in the defense department will do trimmed from an authorized 1 million in fiscal 1992 to 976,000 in fiscal 1993 and 940,000 in fiscal 1995. The reductions will reflect the smaller military Force Structure and management improvements officials said. Contributing to this report staff writer Chuck Vinch in Washington Pentagon s plans sure to undergo lot of surgery by Check Vinch Washington Bureau a a Washington a the Pentagon Bucquet unveiled monday is far from a finished product.4t Isu bout to be dissected by Congress. The first step is for the House and Senate armed services committees to draft authorization Bills telling the Pentagon which programs and spending initiatives lawmakers Are willing to approve. _ _ once the full House and Senate pass those two Bills a conference Between lawmakers from the two armed services committees will work out one version. V that plan then must be approved by the full House and Senate before being sent to president Bush to sign into Law. Bush has the option of vetoing the entire package. A two thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate is needed to override such a veto. The second stage of the process involves the House and Senate appropriations committees which must decide How much Money to allocate for the programs approved in the authorization Bill. Those Corfi Ittzes can fully fund the programs or Only partially fund them. Quot technically they cannot appropriate More Money than was authorized to be spent on any program by the armed services committees. As with the authorization process the two appropriations committees must have a conference to Iron out differences in their respective versions of the funding Bill. \ a it must then be approved by the full House and Senate before going to Bush. Again the president has the option of vetoing it and Congress has a Chance to override thereto. The final defense budget can look much different from the original proposal. The fiscal 1991 budget request unveiled Early last year by the Pentagon totalled $295 billion. But the final defense authorization act totalled $288 billion while the defense appropriations act amounted to $268 billion. Two spending programs accounted for almost a Quarter of the cuts made by Congress in the appropriations Bill. Lawmakers Cut $5 billion from the military operations and maintenance fund and $1.8 billion from the total requested for the strategic defense initiative. Construction projects in Europe source department of defense the Pentagon is seeking $92 million from Congress to finance 15 projects in Europe for fiscal 1992. They include. Iceland Kef Lavik $9.3 million for fuel facilities $10.6 million for a communications Center $10.5 million for a helicopter Rescue recovery hangar. United kingdom Raf Molesworth -$15.6 million for a joint analysis Center. Germany Ramstein a $3.5 million to upgrade a vehicle maintenance facility. Portugal Lajes Field azores $5 million for control Tower and radar approach control system. Italy Naples $4,8 million for an air cargo. Terminal. Sicily naval communications station $2.8 million for a satellite terminal. Simonella $2.3 million for improvements to the engine maintenance shop $9.9 million for an operations control Center. Dodds total of $3 million for minor. A construction at unspecified schools. A amps Susan Harris Only 15 construction projects proposed by Dod for Europe by Janet Howells Tierney Washington Bureau Washington a expected troop reductions have led the Pentagon to propose its smallest military construction request for Europe in years a $92 million for 15 projects none of them Quality of life initiatives. Last year the defense department asked for $334 million to fund 71 construction projects in Europe. Congress approved $64 million. A with a number of bases in Europe already scheduled to close and More undoubtedly to follow i was Felt that overseas construction should go on hold until we get a clearer picture of what our Force Structure in Europe will look like in future years a a Pentagon official said. Worldwide the defense department is seeking $8.2 billion for military construction and family housing in fiscal 1992. That is about $1 billion less than requested this year and $600,000 less than Congress appropriated. The reduction in construction fund requests follows a worldwide military construction freeze that began More than a year ago and will last until at least mid april. The freeze prevents the services from spending any of the $8.4 billion approved As part of the fiscal 1991 military construction appropriations act. A defense Secretary Dick Cheney granted an exception for construction in support of operation desert storm and for architectural and design services at bases outside Europe not scheduled to be closed or scaled Down. Officials expect More overseas bases to be closed in fiscal 1992 but would not comment on possible candidates. The defense department has the authority to shut Down overseas bases without approval from Congress an authority it lacks for stateside bases. In september the Pentagon announced that 127 Sites would be vacated in the next few years and turned Over to Host governments. In addition a activities will be a scaled Down at 23 bases. The majority of the Sites Are Small. They include con Mun cations stations family housing areas and Barracks. Some larger Sites also will be shut Down including Tor Rejon a Spain and Lindsey air station Germany. Contributing to to big report staff writer Chuck Vinch in Washington