Thornberry Releases Budget Views & Estimates Letter

Thornberry Releases Budget Views & Estimates Letter

Together with 30 other majority members of the Committee

WASHINGTON—Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), together with 30 other majority members of the Committee, today sent a “views and estimates” letter to the House Budget Committee.  The letter is an annual requirement as part of the budget process. The letter requests a “restoration to the pre-sequestration BCA caps of $577.0 billion for national defense and $50.9 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations account. If this is not feasible in the first year, the committee recommends, at a minimum, last year’s House-passed Budget Resolution level of $566.0 billion for national defense in the base budget for FY16 with a restoration to pre-sequestration funding in FY17 and out.”  The full letter is available here.
 
In releasing the letter, Thornberry said: “America faces a wider array of serious threats today than at any other time in our history.  It is more important than ever that we invest in our own security.  That does not mean we abandon the tough choices we must make to reduce the deficit and put America on a firmer financial footing.  We can maintain the Budget Control Act’s long-term restraint on federal spending and the House Republican imperative to balance the budget, while making needed reforms such as reductions in DOD overhead, and smart investments to meet domestic and security needs next year.  This month, General Dempsey told me that the President’s funding request was the ‘lower ragged edge’ of what it would take to keep America safe.  There is a better way to invest in our national defense.  Physical security and fiscal security are mutually dependent, not mutually exclusive.  We must make the tough choices to see to both."