House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R., Calif.) asked senior military officials Wednesday for specifics about the actual impact of full sequestration.
Despite a commissioned review of what budgets would look like under sequestration, the details of the Pentagon's budget under sequestration are still unclear, McKeon said during a committee hearing on the subject in his opening remarks:
With that said, we welcomed this review in the hopes that it would answer some of the many unanswered questions we have about how the Department will operate in a post-sequestration budget environment. While I appreciate the intent of this review as an assessment, frankly I was disappointed and troubled by the lack of specificity it offered. The review contained little in the way of new information, leaving us only marginally more informed than we were two years ago. [...]
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs told us you can’t be cut by one more dollar without changing the defense strategy, but when you are cut the Administration downplays the impacts. Your credibility with this committee and with me is on the line this morning. I respect each of you deeply, but now is the time for you to act. Each of you carries the responsibility to give Congress your best and unbiased military advice. Each of you has a higher obligation to provide security for the American people.