An influential lawmaker believes the climate is right on Capitol Hill to repeal sequestration and that increase domestic spending in parallel with defense spending is a “false choice.”
“I think part of the hesitation for releasing sequestration on defense spending and for moving forward for an increase in defense spending is just a lack of understanding what the effects are,” House Armed Services (HASC) tactical air and land forces subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) told an audience on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. “I believe Congress is ready to repeal sequestration.” 
According to law, sequestration will return in 2018 if Congress and the Trump administration fail to reach a compromise on federal defense and non-defense spending and repeal the 2011 Budget Control Act.
Since sequestration summarily slashed 10 percent off the Defense Department topline in 2013, Congress has each year reached some compromise defense spending level that is above the mandatory budget caps. This has been done primarily through continuing resolutions (CR) that punt an actual appropriations bill for six months (Defense Daily, Sept. 7).
Increasing domestic spending along with any increase in defense spending has been the cornerstone of the Democrats’ approach to any potential repeal of sequestration during the current Congress. But with the election of Donald Trump and Republicans gaining strength in the next Congress, GOP appetite for dealing with Democrats on repealing sequestration seems to be waning.
While not outright criticizing the program, Turner cast a pall on the future of one of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s key efforts: the tech community outreach called Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx). When asked if DIUx if should continue into the Trump administration, Turner said there are a number of areas where lawmaker are going to have very tough debates as to what it needs to do with this new administration. Though he opened up his remarks at Heritage by mocking Trump’s reported tardiness in filling his national security team, Turner said a strong national security team is going to be part of that dialogue and he wants to make sure those people are in place before drawing lines in the sand.
Turner said he’d be open to base closures if Congress can trust the Trump administration. Turner said Congress didn’t have a relationship of trust with President Obama’s administration. The Pentagon has proposed another round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) over the years only to be immediately rejected by lawmakers worried about taking the blame for losing jobs in their districts.
Turner said he wasn’t sure if the Trump administration would want to pursue a BRAC round, but he said the proposal would be received much differently than under the Obama administration. A new BRAC round could be used to find inefficiencies in spending that could be reallocated to higher priorities, something Turner said he certainly endorses.
“There is no question that efficiencies still need to be found in DoD,” Turner said.