Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey visited Capitol Hill this week to discuss the potential impact of sequestration on U.S. military readiness with Senate lawmakers, DoD News reported Tuesday.
Cheryl Pellerin writes that Carter endorsed President Barack Obama’s request for a higher defense budget for fiscal 2016 compared to sequester-level caps and outlined his aim to build on the Defense Department‘s future development.
“By halting the decline in defense spending imposed by the Budget Control Act, the president’s budget would give us the resources we need to execute our nation’s defense strategy,” Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He called on Congress to end sequestration and enable reforms to help DoD handle the current global security environment, the report said.
Jim Garamone wrote in a separate report that Dempsey pointed to nation-states and nonstate entities that have the aim and intent to constrain and overpower U.S. interests.
“With threats proliferating, resources declining, and sequestration just months away, our ability to assure our allies is in question and our advantages over our adversaries are shrinking,” Dempsey told the panel.
He also supported the president’s defense budget proposal and said a lower budget will affect force deployment and forward presence as the size of the force could be reduced.
