New House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry used the first major speech of his tenure to strengthen his committee’s role in determining the “shape, size and soul” of the military.
Over the last few years, the Pentagon has defined its budget under sequestration as largely a debate between weapons systems and readiness. With many of the cuts, Congress has countered and restored funding in its annual defense bill, such as last year’s restoration of the A-10 Thunderbolt and the refueling of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
“It’s the next generation, staking its position in the relationship,” in an exchange that has likely become more adversarial between the Pentagon and Congress as both have tried to frame the choices the Pentagon must make under tight budgets, said Ryan Crotty, a defense fellow and deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Thornberry, R-Texas, has been involved in more than two years of congressional hearings on the effects of sequestration and what relief is needed to preserve force readiness. He took Tuesday’s opportunity to remind both lawmakers and the Pentagon that his committee will have a leading role in identifying which systems are crucial to responding to increasing instability — from “the renewed aggression of major powers … failed stated, terrorism, and horrible diseases — the list is long,” Thornberry said. “I don’t believe any of my predecessors had to face such a wide array of serious, complex threats to our security as we do today.”
So it should not come as a surprise to the Pentagon that his committee will continue to counter suggested Pentagon weapons systems cuts it deems imprudent.
Citing the ongoing volatility in the defense budget and in the world, “a lot of us want to be very careful about giving things away,” Thornberry said. In capability, “the sheer number of ships is a big deal.”
In the case of the A-10, Thornberry questioned why the Pentagon would ask to retire an aircraft that just a few months later was employed in Iraq and Syria.
Thornberry noted, however, that there are no easy ways to undo the fiscal 2016 defense spending caps mandated by sequestration. If the president’s 2016 defense budget follows anticipated long-term levels, even meeting just the $535 billion cap would require the Hill and Pentagon to spend much of this year again negotiating just to find some or all of the requested funds.
“I don’t know if anyone has the magic formula, or it would be done by now,” he said.
