January 30, 2015

In a familiar scene, the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 28 imploring legislators to avoid and eventually repeal the across-the-board cuts of sequestration scheduled to return on October 1.

Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) captured the mood of the panel saying, “Warnings from our senior military and national security leaders have become frustratingly familiar…and yet, here we go again.”

The service chiefs once again painted a grim picture of readiness should sequestration return. It forces the services into a “budget based strategy,” according to Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert. The CNO also noted the strain sequestration places on military personnel and its adverse effects on retention. 

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said, “we are the smallest Air Force that we have ever been.” Less than 50 percent of the force meets readiness requirements, and competition from the airlines could seriously degrade retention in the coming years. 

Commandant of the Marine Corps Joseph Dunford expressed concern that Marines were averaging an operational tempo of seven months deployed to 14 months at home. This high tempo threatens Marine families, readiness and morale. 

Despite agreement between lawmakers, military leadership, and the administration that sequestration should be repealed, there is no consensus on how to pay for it. It is widely expected that the administration’s budget will propose sequestration relief, but a bipartisan proposal to pay for it isn’t expected.

Without a new “grand bargain” compromise on entitlements, government spending, and revenue reform, Congress will once again be left scrambling for a short-term fix from the meat-axe cuts of sequestration that are nearly universally deplored.

MOAA continues to call for Congress and the administration to rise above partisan politics to eliminate this serious threat to both servicemembers and our national security.