Press Releases

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, released the following statement in response to Secretary Carter's speech earlier today previewing the FY17 defense budget:

"Today, Secretary Carter identified a number of challenges to our national security and proposed investments to begin to address them. Some of those investments, like preserving the A10 and increasing stockpiles of some munitions are measures the Department has previously opposed. These options are only available to him because bipartisan majorities in Congress spent years fighting to keep them in our arsenal-- against the wishes of Secretary Carter and his predecessors.

The Secretary should not be allowed to mislead anyone. The increase in counter-ISIS investments and deterrence of Russia are welcome and needed moves. But the President’s budget request, for example, does not add funds to accommodate the $7.5 billion in additional funding to counter ISIS or the $3.4 billion to deter Russia. Most importantly, the budget he previewed today is not consistent with the Bipartisan Budget Act that Congress and the White House reached last year. The Administration is now choosing to ignore the deal. The agreement provided a minimum investment in national security-- the "lower ragged edge" of what it takes to defend the country, plus an agreement that the rest of the OCO funding would reflect current operations and the current security environment. The President's response to a security environment that is quickly degrading is to further cannibalize our military capability.

The President had the authority and responsibility to request all funding necessary to address emerging threats. Once again, the responsibility to provide the appropriate level of funding to address these threats will fall to Congress.”

******NOTE:HASC Staff will be available for a press backgrounder to discuss budget issues via conference call today at 2:30pm EST. To join, please dial 866-756-9061 and enter passcode 5700205.******