Planned commissary cut may be partially restored

House and Senate conferees negotiating a package to fund the Department of Defense through September 2015 have protected commissary operations by restoring 90 percent of a planned $100 million cut.

Once again lawmakers thwarted a cost-saving initiative targeting military compensation and endorsed by the Joint Chiefs as a way to dampen personnel costs so more dollars can be spent on training, weapon buys and other readiness accounts being victimized by arbitrary “sequestration” cuts.

Only last week House and Senate conferees on a different bill, the 2015 defense authorization act, unveiled a deal to lower the Defense Commissary Agency annual $1.3 billion budget to $1.2 billion.

DeCA said it could absorb the knock without impacting customer savings or services.

The military resale industry challenged that notion, saying a cut of more than 7 percent inevitably would impact staffing and store hours.

This week conferees shaping a final defense appropriations bill that is part of a massive spending package for the entire federal government restored $90 million of the commissary budget cut in the authorization bill.

“This essential funding ensures that DeCA … will continue delivering a core benefit of military compensation,” said Patrick Nixon, president of the American Logistics Association.

ALA represents manufacturers and vendors of products sold in military stores.

In rejecting almost every Defense Department proposal this year to hold down personnel costs, lawmakers said time after time these changes should await the final report of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, due in February.

Appropriators echoed that point in restoring commissary funding.

Tom Philpott can be contacted at Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Va. 20120-1111, or by e-mail at:

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