The Department of Defense announced that it was unhappy with the House Armed Service Committee’s mark-up of the Fiscal Year 2015 Department of Defense budget.
“Without speaking specifically to pending legislation, [Hagel’s] hope is that the Congress will see the wisdom in the strategic choices, the hard decisions that he has made,” Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said. “And his expectation is that they’ll be willing to make the same ones.
The House Committee mark-up ignored several of the Pentagon’s budget requests, including a proposal for another round of base realignment and closure (BRAC), to limit military pay, and funding for the A-10 Warthog.
Kirby noted that the budget process was still in the early phases, and would be debated in the Senate as well as within conference.
Speaking before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs this week, Hagel acknowledged that the Department of Defense was making tough choices. If done right, however, Hagel stated he feels “the United States Military will emerge from this period having sustained, and even sharpened, its decisive edge.”
The House committee approved a $600 billion defense bill this week, an amount approximately $30 billion smaller than that authorized for 2014.
