Article published from TREA: From Washington: News for the Enlisted, August 24, 2015 –
Speaking at a forum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord last week, two members of Congress predicted there will be diminished spending for the military, tight restrictions on how Congress allows the Pentagon to respond to budget cuts, and more political stalemates that could lead to government shutdowns.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who is the Ranking Member (top ranking Democrat) of the House Armed Services Committee, said that not only is the defense budget being reduced, but it is being reduced in an extremely unpredictable manner.
Smith’s remarks come after he voted against the defense budget last May for the first time in his 18 years in Congress. He also said he is concerned that Congress has blocked proposals by the Department of Defense to cut troop benefits and certain weapons programs.
Smith said he favors a new Base Realignment and Closure commission to study which military bases are no longer needed and should be shut down. Without another round of base closures, Smith said that DoD will be forced to keep installations open that it doesn’t need and then will take money out of maintenance and training in order to pay for keeping those bases. Ultimately, he said, he is concerned about maintaining military readiness.
Rep. Denny Heck (D- Wash.), who is not a member of the Armed Services Committee but who has a large military community in his district, predicted the differences in Congress over the way money was added to the defense budget from a fund that was supposed to be used only for war related expenses would ultimately result in a government shutdown.