Twenty-eight members of Congress attended a classified briefing yesterday afternoon hosted by House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and HASC readiness subcommittee chairman Rob Wittman (R-Va.) to learn about military budgeting, what goes into keeping the military ready, and how sequestration is hurting military readiness more than other military spending.

“Today was a good first step,” Wittman said, but he added that today would be the first in a series of these educational briefings aimed at helping non-HASC members understand that sequestration affects the Defense Department differently than it affects domestic spending because of differences in how departments’ budgets are crafted.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.)
Photo courtesy Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.)

Laura Junor, deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness, and Brig. Gen. Martin Schweitzer, deputy director for regional operations on the joint staff, gave the classified briefing and answered questions from the bipartisan group of lawmakers, including some from the two newest classes of Republicans that are willing to consider cutting anything, rather than the traditional “everything but homeland security and defense” approach, McKeon said.

“When you talk to them one-on-one and try to explain some of these things, it’s like the light goes off,” he added. “People do not want to get rid of a strong defense. They just think they have too much money.”

What McKeon said most people don’t understand is that DoD is already losing $487 billion over a decade from the Budget Control Act, as well as earlier cuts from internal efficiencies efforts, as well as Overseas Contingency Operations funding that is going away but was often used to supplement base budgets for needs not solely related to the war, such as vehicle maintenance.

“I think most members of Congress really want to do what’s right. I think the problem is figuring out what is right,” McKeon said. “And a lot of them, we come here, we get put on a committee, immersed in that committee and learn those issues, but you don’t learn what’s happening in other committees.”

Wittman said he hoped that word would spread and more members would come to his next briefing. He is also hoping to attract House leadership and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who could use the information about military readiness while making decisions about whether to keep sequestration in place and, if so, whether to maintain its rigidity.

“It was purely informational, there wasn’t any discussion about where does this lead from a policy standpoint,” Wittman said. “We wanted this to be purely a dialogue back and forth between folks in the Pentagon, both uniformed and civilian side, and get the basic information to people outside the HASC. And then from that standpoint they can use that information as they have discussions with other members in the budget conference committee or whatever their role is.”

Neither would speculate about what concessions they’d make to preserve readiness, such as agreeing to tax reform or other demands Democrats have made. They just said that all lawmakers should know what their decisions would mean for national defense and for the men and women in uniform.

“We’re not trying to say we should waste money, what we’re saying is we need to have enough,” McKeon said, acknowledging that lawmakers hear horror stories about $100 hammers but that they need to understand that what is actually being cut now is training for troops about to deploy overseas.

“The training they really focus on is [improvised explosive devices], that’s where we lose most of our lives and limbs over there,” McKeon said. “And so if they are cut short on some of that training, it puts them more at risk. So readiness is really important.”