CSBA staff frequently brief senior planning groups in government and the private sector, testify before Congress, lecture at colleges and universities, and present briefings before civic and professional groups in the United States and abroad.
CSBA Helps Reporters Prepare for QDR and Budget Roll-Out
January 26, 2010: CSBA hosted its 26th Annual Pre-Budget Press Briefing in advance of the Defense Department's February 1 release of the FY 2011 Defense Budget request and the QDR 2010 submission to Congress (video webcast).
Stan Collender of Quorvis Communications opened the briefing with an overview of the federal budget situation for 2011, offering his prognosis on how the defense budget is likely to be shaped within the context of the deficit reduction efforts announced by President Obama earlier in the week. “Military spending will not be growing on the aggregate at the same rate that we’ve been seeing in the recent years,” he predicted. “The defense budget will not be immune from deficit reduction efforts.”
CSBA Budget Studies Fellow Todd Harrison discussed defense dollars allocation over the past decade and highlighted budgetary and programmatic issues that would complicate DoD’s planning over the Future Year Defense Program. (Todd’s full analysis)
Jim Thomas, CSBA Vice President for Strategic Studies, and Mark Gunzinger, the Center's new Senior Fellow, suggested important questions and themes that reporters should explore as the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review is rolled-out next week. Areas of strategic risk-taking, short-term versus long-term focus, strategic alignment and programmatic continuity disconnect were discussed. “Every QDR disappoints those who look for radical reallocation of resources,” concluded Thomas. “The current fiscal environment is compounding that trend.”
