Congressional panels overseeing the Pentagon are rebuking additional defense budget cuts in recommendations due tomorrow to the “super committee” charged with finding $1.5 trillion in federal savings.
Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) leaders told reporters yesterday they remain opposed to additional discretionary defense cuts from the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a stance shared by the House Armed Service Committee (HASC).
Congressional authorization committees have until tomorrow to submit proposals to the 12-member congressional deficit panel, the so-called “super committee,” which has a Nov. 23 deadline for crafting a plan for cutting $1.5 trillion in federal spending over the next decade. If it and Congress cannot agree on a plan, the defense budget will be cut by roughly $500 billion through a sequestration process. That reduction would be in addition to the $450 billion-plus cut the Pentagon said it already received to its 10-year spending plans in Budget Control Act of 2011.
“I oppose…additional discretionary defense spending cuts beyond the $450 billion that are required by…the deficit-reduction act,” SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told reporters yesterday on Capitol Hill. He noted his opposition is shared by President Barack Obama and multiple lawmakers.
SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) similarly told reporters he is “very firm” in his opposition to additional cuts.
Levin, though, did not rule out recommending changes to mandatory Pentagon spending, such as co-payments for the TRICARE health-care program.
“We may give them some suggested cuts in mandatory spending in defense,” he said.
Levin and McCain said they were still finalizing their recommendation to the deficit panel
“We’ll have the numbers and then we’ll give statements explaining how we reached the conclusions that we reached,” McCain said.
In the House, HASC Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) has been outspoken in voicing concerns about additional defense cuts beyond the $450 billion already approved by the new deficit-cutting law, which Obama signed in August.
HASC leadership is expected to submit a proposal to the deficit committee that is informed by a recent committee memo warning about defense cuts beyond the initial $450 billion. The Sept. 22 missive by HASC staff warns further defense reductions would significantly impact funding for maneuver battalions, fighter wings, shipbuilding, long-range strike, and airlift (Defense Daily, Sept. 27).
McKeon said during a hearing yesterday that he is not “arguing that the military can be held exempt from fiscal belt tightening.”
“Indeed, half a trillion dollars has been cut from the (Department of Defense) DoD already,” he said. “The military has absorbed about half of the deficit reduction measures enacted to date, but these cuts have happened in advance of the development of a new strategy for national defense and without any changes to the military’s roles and missions.”
HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), meanwhile, said during the hearing that lawmakers face a daunting task in cutting the federal deficit and Republicans thus must consider additional taxes.
“I think there are incredibly powerful arguments that have been made by the (Republican) majority for the devastating impact of further cuts on national security,” Smith said. “We must prevent that. But unfortunately, the debt-ceiling agreement puts us on the path to doing it unless we come up with something else.”
He maintained “the importance of our national security needs is an argument for” lawmakers to consider new revenues.
“I will continue to advocate very strongly for that, in part, because of my belief that the national security budget has already been cut by as much as it can be but also, in part, because there are other discretionary programs that are important to this country” that would be cut if the sequestration process is triggered, Smith said.