Sequestration Expected to Impact Moffett Field Commissary

As the sequester looms just days away, the military community at Moffett Field braces for potential changes in their immediate future.

The White House released figures Sunday of the likely impact of sequestration to the Department of Defense's budget in California after the Mar. 1 deadline comes and goes. If Congress doesn't agree to an alternative plan, the spending cuts— to the tune of $399.4 million—could effect commissaries at military facilities throughout the country including the one at Moffett Field.

"Our business is to supply the military community," said Raul Abrego, director of the Moffett Field Commissary, who expressed uncertainty about the fate of the commissary in the event that the budget cuts took affect. "And we’re going to be rolled back. We’re open six days right now…probably at the end of April we will be closed two days out of the week. So we’ll go from a six day store to a five day store." [sic]

Commissaries save military families and retirees upward of 30 percent off their bills because the overhead, such as salaries and utilities, is paid by the Department of Defense, Southern California Public Radio reported.

The Moffett Field Commissary is currently not yet on the list of commissaries subject for closure. The Pentagon announced on Feb. 25th, however, that 800,000 civilians might be furloughed at least four days out of each month as an impact of the budget cuts.

"The big thing that people are talking about right now are furloughs," said Abrego. "Being laid off, whether it be one day out of the week, or longer periods."

Sequestration forces the DOD to shave off an additional $47 billion in spending for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

"It is very clear that from military readiness to partial impacts to military families and troops that we’re looking at a very bleak set of scenarios if sequestration takes effect," said Pentagon Press Secretary George Little.

According to a survey conducted by the First Command Financial Behaviors Index, middle-class military families anticipate that they will experience a reduction in retirement benefits, education benefits, as well as an increased responsibility for healthcare costs.

Mountain View Patch attempted to get reactions from members of the Moffett Field military community, however no one wanted to discuss sequestration and in some cases, were not informed as to what sequestration might mean for the people living on base.

"That’s part of our nature, sometimes it feels that people are intruding on our space," said Abrego, "so we don’t want to talk about—or at least we’re always in a hurry."

There are about 181 military housing units on Moffett Field.

According to Abrego, the Moffett Field Commissary’s largest clientele are the retirees, who compose 75 percent of the people on base.

Fifty percent of the individuals surveyed by the First Command Financial Behaviors Index expect that military retirement benefits would also significantly be reduced as a result of sequestration. 

As sequestration draws closer and closer, the military community continues to be in a state of limbo.

"Nothing is really written in stone right now, we just don’t know," said Abrego, "We just don’t know."

Additional reporting by Claudia Cruz.

This article was produced through a collaboration of PatchU and the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at San Jose State University. PatchU is a Patch Media initiative to build strong relationships with colleges and universities across the country. The mission of PatchU is to connect students and faculty to opportunities at Patch.  

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