Defense Drumbeat

POLITICO: Scores of House Republicans led by Mike Turner are urging House leaders to take "immediate action" to repeal the caps on defense spending set by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

In a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan 141 Republican lawmakers committed to supporting legislation repealing the budget caps. Turner... said he expects the high number signatures will build momentum toward a vote to repeal the caps.

Among his House Republican colleagues, Turner touted Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) as a co-signer as well as prominent conservatives Mark Walker (R-N.C.), who chairs the Republican Study Committee, and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who heads the House Freedom Caucus...

He also rebuffed suggestions that defense hawks and the administration,... may not be on the same page...

"Donald Trump has called for a repeal of sequestration on national security, and certainly OMB reports to him," Turner said. "So on this matter, I think the administration is not only in line, I think that they're calling for Congress to act."

POST: ..."This is not just a spending issue, this is a security issue," Turner said in a call with reporters. "Sequestration has required us to do fictional budgeting."

Republicans have long insisted that capping defense spending could hamper military readiness, but the latest push comes with the backing of conservatives who are often skeptical of spending increase of any kind.

"I'm okay with breaking the caps on the defense sequester," said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). "That's where the negotiations start."

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: A solid majority of House Republicans urged the chamber on Wednesday to repeal the budget caps on defense that remain a major hurdle to President Trump's proposed military buildup.

"What this shows is that budget hawks and defense hawks are together and that the effects of sequestration are so devastating to national security that people see this needs to be taken care of immediately," Turner, an Armed Services subcommittee chairman, told the Washington Examiner.