Senate Panel Votes Pentagon Payroll Cutback

The manpower subcommittee of the Republican-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee has approved a plan to pare defense spending by eliminating 175,000 military and civilian jobs from the Pentagon payroll over the next two years, congressional sources disclosed Saturday.

The cut, which cleared the subcommittee by a one-vote margin at an unannounced meeting Thursday, would reduce the strength of the uniformed services by 75,000 and eliminate 100,000 civilian jobs over the next two fiscal years, said the sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.

If the manpower reductions survive successive actions in committees and on the floors of the Senate and House, they could result in a $5.25-billion saving in fiscal 1986 and 1987.

President Reagan’s fiscal 1986 budget proposed that active duty forces, now about 2.15 million, be increased by 27,000 and that the Defense Department’s civilian work force be increased by 18,000.

The nine-member subcommittee was also reported to have decided to defer the effective date of the 3% military pay raise proposed in Reagan’s budget from January to July, 1986, but to increase it then to 4%.

Thursday’s vote is subject to clearance by the full Armed Services Committee when it acts on Reagan’s $313.7-billion military budget request for fiscal 1986. It is expected to generate vehement opposition from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who have argued that ample support strength is required to man and maintain today’s increasingly sophisticated weapons.

Congressional sources reported “spirited discussion” preceding the vote, on which Republicans were said to have argued that the cuts would hit fat, not muscle, as they supported the reductions. The GOP aim was reportedly to produce a negotiable counterproposal to moves by the Senate Budget Committee that are aimed at freezing Pentagon expenditures.

The Budget Committee, in a non-binding action, has already proposed cutting $18.5 billion from Reagan’s military spending plan.

More Immediate Impact

Reductions in manpower have a far more immediate effect on budget figures than do cutbacks in weapons programs, which are phased in over a period of years.

Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has asked his subcommittees to recommend one of three possible growth rates in the Pentagon budget, all lower than the 5.9% rate proposed by Reagan. The options are a zero growth rate, 3% growth and 4% growth.

If military spending were to be frozen at current levels, a congressional source said, it would mean a $19.7-billion cut in the outlays envisioned in Reagan’s spending plan.