House Presses Military Chiefs on Sequestration Specifics

Two Years of Testimony and No Details

House Armed Services Committee chief Rep. Buck McKeon (R – CA) is demanding specific details from the chiefs of the various US military branches in upcoming testimony, warning that he was no longer willing to accept “generalities and percentages.”

I expect to hear – in very clear terms – what elements of that security you will no longer be in a position to provide,” McKeon said, noting that two solid years of testimony on sequestration hadn’t answered any of those questions.

All the testimony about budget cuts has centered on predicting imminent, but extremely non-specific calamity for the various military branches, and have been reluctant to offer anything in the way of details about what they are planning.

Rep. Adam Smith (D – WA) criticized McKeon for his comments, saying Congress was partly to blame for the military’s inability to plan for sequestration by allowing sequestration to actually happen.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.