Army brass to go to Fla. while budget cuts loom

Army brass to go to Fla. while budget cuts loom
By Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today
Posted : Monday Feb 11, 2013

WASHINGTON — Top Army brass have been cleared to attend a conference in Fort Lauderdale this month despite orders to curtail such events in light of the looming federal budget crisis unless they are “mission-critical,” according to memos obtained by USA Today.

The conference held annually by the Association of the U.S. Army combines a defense-contractor trade show with seminars for soldiers. It will take place Feb. 20-22, a little more than a week before the military faces what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called cuts to the Pentagon budget that could render the U.S. armed forces a “second-rate power.”

Those reductions are being triggered in part by “sequestration,” which includes a $500 billion cut to military spending over a decade if Congress and the White House can’t reach a deal on the federal deficit by March 1.

Army Secretary John McHugh approved the attendance of 76 Army personnel at the conference, according to a memo. The cost to the Army: $157,966, down 95 percent for last year’s total of nearly $3 million. In 2012, 576 soldiers and civilian employees traveled to Florida for the conference.
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