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Thread: Why DHS has been hoarding ammo. The answer. I think.

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  1. #1
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    Wink Why DHS has been hoarding ammo. The answer. I think.

    So, I spoke to a colleague who follows DoD and related stuff for a living.

    He seems to think that DHS has been making huge ammo orders ... to get it all in before sequestration takes effect tomorrow (March 1).

    In hindsight, that makes a lot of sense, and no tin-foil involved.

    Rule of government budgeting: If you ain't spending your budget, you are being inefficient. You lose it next year if you don't use it now.
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    I think you could be onto to something. Agencies often purchase ammunition for more than one year, sometimes four or five.

    How many agencies fall under DHS? How many employees are required to train and qualify with a firearm each year and how many rounds do they expend? I know a Federal Marshall who was complaining that his people were reduced to 1,000 rounds per year for training. 1,000 rounds per year multiplied by the number of sworn in his agency is a lot of ammunition and that's just one Federal agency.
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    It was that way at the end of the fiscal year in the Marine Corps. I was an XO for an artillery battery and always felt the system bred waste and misuse.

    Bn CO: "We have 30 days until the end of the fiscal year and $XXXXX left. If we don't spend this then we lose it and they won't give us as much next year. So find out anything the howitzers need, find out what's wrong with any of the trucks, order excess parts, and find out any other office supplies or anything else you might want."

    It always caused the most ridiculous ideas to waste money to be brought up. I was never in charge of a battalion or higher's budget so maybe I just don't get why it has to be that way but it seemed wasteful. And it seemed the system being that way was the reason for it.

    But to the point of hoarding ammo before the sequestration I completely understand holding on to as much of that as possible. Ammo is something that I would never look at obtaining large quantities of as waste.
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    Not to mention that the Coast Guard is part of the DHS.....

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    While that is true, we purchased our ammo 5 years in advance. So we were buying 5 years of ammunition at a time. It would be uncommon to make more than one purchase in a fiscal year. I may be wrong.

    Quote Originally Posted by Littlelebowski View Post
    Not to mention that the Coast Guard is part of the DHS.....



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    Yep. The old 'spend all your money before they close the books.' Has happened every year for decades across the govt. There is plenty of room in the budget cut. I would argue the Army budget could be cut in half and only improve readiness.

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    Makes sense. FUBAR bureaucracy. And don't think its limited to the Federal Govt either, apparently its why we have $1500 water fountains in our capital state house here in Ohio. No, no, those water fountains really do cost $1500............

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    Quote Originally Posted by Smash View Post
    It was that way at the end of the fiscal year in the Marine Corps. I was an XO for an artillery battery and always felt the system bred waste and misuse.

    Bn CO: "We have 30 days until the end of the fiscal year and $XXXXX left. If we don't spend this then we lose it and they won't give us as much next year. So find out anything the howitzers need, find out what's wrong with any of the trucks, order excess parts, and find out any other office supplies or anything else you might want."

    It always caused the most ridiculous ideas to waste money to be brought up. I was never in charge of a battalion or higher's budget so maybe I just don't get why it has to be that way but it seemed wasteful. And it seemed the system being that way was the reason for it.

    But to the point of hoarding ammo before the sequestration I completely understand holding on to as much of that as possible. Ammo is something that I would never look at obtaining large quantities of as waste.
    This is very true. I was an XO for an Army artillery battery but we were a separate battery with an independent budget. We had an annual budget and one of my additional duties was the budget officer. Basically, the goal was to spend every last cent of your budget. Let say you were efficient or simply didn't have the need to spend your entire budget then the next year your budget would be reduced to match your actually spending automatically. In addition, you would lose the money that you didn't spend the last fiscal year. Under this system, you are actually punished for trying to save the taxpayer money.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Smash View Post
    It was that way at the end of the fiscal year in the Marine Corps. I was an XO for an artillery battery and always felt the system bred waste and misuse.

    Bn CO: "We have 30 days until the end of the fiscal year and $XXXXX left. If we don't spend this then we lose it and they won't give us as much next year. So find out anything the howitzers need, find out what's wrong with any of the trucks, order excess parts, and find out any other office supplies or anything else you might want."

    It always caused the most ridiculous ideas to waste money to be brought up. I was never in charge of a battalion or higher's budget so maybe I just don't get why it has to be that way but it seemed wasteful. And it seemed the system being that way was the reason for it.

    But to the point of hoarding ammo before the sequestration I completely understand holding on to as much of that as possible. Ammo is something that I would never look at obtaining large quantities of as waste.
    Care to mention which Bn?

    Not that it's unique to one unit, but I know exactly what you speak of. GSA runs and 4-cards for M777's out the ass around mid-september.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Smash View Post
    .......
    Bn CO: "We have 30 days until the end of the fiscal year and $XXXXX left. If we don't spend this then we lose it and they won't give us as much next year. So find out anything the howitzers need, find out what's wrong with any of the trucks, order excess parts, and find out any other office supplies or anything else you might want."...............
    ****ing A! In my unit we would spend the excess on new recliners for the dayroom, TVs (because we needed to upgrade from 42 to 56 inch. Then LED came out so "upgrade" again), kitchen appliances, useless handtools, pocketknives, and other gadgetry, etc. Just one flight in the AF. And when I think about how many flights per squadron, squadrons per group, groups per wing, and how many AF bases around the world, I can instantly see how we don't get the military we are paying for because so much is going to waste/abuse. Then think of all the other branches plus the civilian .gov agencies!
    Last edited by El Pistolero; 05-05-13 at 14:08.

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