The Impact of the Budget Control Act of 2011 and Sequestration on National Security

Despite an accumulating array of complex threats to our national interests, we are on track now to cut $1 trillion from America's defense budget by the year 2021. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has taken over a swath of territory the size of Indiana in the Middle East. We are now on track to having nearly 3,000 U.S. troops back in Iraq, and we are flying hundreds of airstrikes a month against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. China has increased its aggressive challenge to America and our allies in the Asia-Pacific region where geopolitical tensions and the potential for miscalculations are high. While the Ryan-Murray budget agreement of 2013 provided some relief from the mindlessness of sequestration, that relief did little to provide the kind of fiscal certainty that our military needs to plan for the future and make longer-term investments for the national defense. If we continue with these arbitrary defense cuts, we will harm our military's ability to keep us safe. Our Army and Marine Corps will be too small. Our Air Force will have too few aircraft, and many of those will be too old. Our Navy will have too few ships. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines will not get the training or equipment they need. It will become increasingly difficult for them to respond to any of a number of contingencies that could threaten our national interests around the world.