Cut the budget caps: The US needs to properly fund our military

Amidst the return of the Maverick and late-night health care votes in the Senate, it is easy to lose sight of the other major development to happen on the Hill last couple weeks — the House passed an appropriations bill that busts budget caps by $63.5 billion. The defense appropriation bill in the Senate, which has yet to hit the floor, exceeds caps by $1.8 billion. If either are enacted, they would trigger sequestration, the automatic cuts required by the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA).

{mosads}The draconian budget caps have cut defense funding by $78 billion since President Obama’s 2012 budget. The congressional defense committees have written budgets that realistically address how to rebuild the military but the threat of sequestration threatens the success of those budgets.

As a former staffer to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee now working at a D.C. think tank, I have seen firsthand the importance of the National Defense Authorization Act as a statement of Congressional priorities. I have also seen the unpredictability the BCA has caused to the Pentagon and military services. It is my view that Congress should repeal the BCA.

The BCA’s caps are problematic in three ways: They have not constrained spending; they do not reflect the reality of today’s world where the military has more commitments; and they create budget instability dangerous to long-term planning.

BCA Caps Have Not Cut Federal Spending

As Senator Tom Cotton (my former boss) argued in The Wall Street Journal last month, the BCA has not reduced federal spending.

Congress continues to raise the caps, just with chaotic uncertainty thrown in the mix, and federal spending continues to increase. The unpredictability, however, hampers medium to long-term planning at the Pentagon, particularly critical when weapons systems acquisitions programs and procurement timelines extend decades.

The law creates false choices for budgeting that result in bi-annual exercises and hijinks to pass a new reconciliation act to satisfy Congress’s Constitutional Article I responsibilities.

The politics of the BCA have also forced simultaneous increases in defense and nondefense spending, instead of setting each based on budget priorities. The Trump administration’s first budget cut nondefense spending substantially, but to get Democratic votes on a budget deal, Republicans will have to increase nondefense spending. Consequently, for the military to get the resources it needs, both defense and non-defense spending will have to increase substantially.

BCA Caps are Not Linked to Today’s World

It is strategically foolish to keep Congress’s hands tied for the sake of 2011 legislation. The world has changed a lot in six years — Russia has signed long-term basing contracts on the Mediterranean and deployed its advanced military technology while continuing to agitate in its near abroad, China is militarizing islands in the South China Sea and installing foreign bases in Africa, the Middle East continues to crumble as wars persist, Iran charged U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf and continues its missile development program, and North Korea tested two ICBMs in the last month.

Today’s military is asked to do more with less while simultaneously trying to dig itself out of its readiness and modernization hole. To do all of this, the military requires adequate funding.

BCA Caps Prohibit Strategic Planning

Even if a short-term deal could be reached, the continued threat of sequestration poses high risks. Sequestration in 2013 caused significant disruptions in readiness that are the root of today’s challenges. The threat has pushed Congress to routinely rely on short term budget gimmicks like Continuing Resolutions, followed by short-term budget deals.

Under a Continuing Resolution, DoD cannot function normally, including prohibitions on new project starts. While the Pentagon is not a business in the traditional sense, it operates with other businesses. Weapons systems are procured on decades-long timelines, and it is imperative that DoD can plan for those decades. At present, budget instability has made budgeting an annual boondoggle, rather than a strategic exercise.

As the White House continues to wallow in chaos, it is more important than ever that Congress is decisive in its constitutional directive to appropriate funds. The political solution to rising debt has yet to bear fruit, but it has caused chaos in DoD. Congress should repeal the Budget Control Act and get down the business of realistically managing the budget.

Lauren Fish is a research associate with the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program at the Center for a New American Security, an organization that develops national security and defense policies.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.