To stay under the budget caps set by Congress last year, the Defense Department is proposing a 33% cut in military construction spending for fiscal 2015 in comparison to this year’s enacted level, according to a DOD senior executive.

      DoD is accepting more risk in the construction program in order to decrease risk in operational and training budgets, Acting Deputy Undersecretary John Conger told a House panel on March 12.

      The Army’s construction budget would drop by 46.8%, from $1.7 billion to $893 million; the Navy’s would fall 35%, from $1.8 billion to $1.2 billion; and the Air Force’s, down 18.9%, from $1.3 billion to $1 billion, FierceGov reported (http://goo.gl/0WZcys and http://goo.gl/zXFs1G.

      That totals a drop from $4.8 billion to $3.1 billion, or about a 35% cut. An explanation for the apparent deviation from Conger’s figure was not immediately available.