On Inauguration Day 2017, the Obama administration left President Trump a severely weakened and constrained military. For the better part of a decade, President Obama allowed his administration's sequestration to destroy the capabilities and readiness of our armed forces. He forced our Americans in uniform to take the risk that a weaker military would not further endanger their lives and our own national security.
In 2017, we witnessed North Korea's aggressive nuclear action, Russian meddling in democratic systems (including our own), and an Iranian regime dedicated to expanding its sphere of influence at the expense of their neighbors' peace and freedoms. On top of all that, our men and women in uniform fight against violent radicalism around the world.
Given the scope of these challenges our military faces, remarkably, Secretary of Defense James Mattis testified, "No enemy in the field has done more to harm the combat readiness of our military than sequestration." Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, General Dunford, added, "Eight years of continuing resolutions and the absence of predictable funding has forced the [defense] Department to prioritize near-term readiness at the expense of modernization and advance capability development."
In the final four years of the Obama presidency, our military's ability to deploy around the world and win wars deteriorated. To right this wrong, in May, an overwhelming 140 of my Republican colleagues—the majority of the majority—joined me in asking Speaker Paul Ryan to bring a vote to repeal the sequestration of national defense to the floor. Congress can and must undo the devastation of the Obama era to our defense...
