Sometimes it pays to keep up on reports about federal budget funding changes. For Adele Saba and the U.S. Army Tacom Life Cycle Management Command in Warren, it has paid at least $400 million to date.

In early 2013 Saba, then a budget analyst, noticed that other subordinate commands to the U.S. Army Material Command based in Alabama were taking advantage of a new budget funding category, “Base to Overseas Contingency Operations,” that would not be counted against a national debt ceiling ratio created under the federal Budget Control Act of 2011. That act triggered a series of “sequestration” cuts that have particularly targeted military operations and maintenance accounts.

Further research determined that about $200 million in funding the initial year for various equipment maintenance programs was eligible to be transferred into “Base-to-OCO,” averting possible sequestration. Last year Base-to-OCO accounted for about $74 million in spending on Tacom programs, she said, and this year it’s over $120 million.

“I noticed that these funds were allocated through other (commands) under AMC so I asked, ‘Why don’t we look into this and save the funding rather than have to give it back?’ ” she said.

Now a lead program analyst, Saba heads a small team handling strategy and disbursement in a $500 million piece of the Tacom budget.

“The biggest sense of accomplishment that I felt was that soldiers wouldn’t have received the resetting of vehicles, so maybe soldiers wouldn’t get back as much needed equipment and lives could have been in danger without the funding stream.”