Rep. Calvert Statement on FY20 Defense Appropriations Bill

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42), the top Republican on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement regarding the draft Fiscal Year 2020 Defense Appropriations bill released by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense:

"Providing the resources necessary to train and equip our men and women in uniform should always be a bipartisan priority in Congress. I know by his words and actions that Chairman Pete Visclosky shares that sentiment and I thank him for the collaborative approach he's taken in crafting the bill released today. The bill continues to make positive strides in rebuilding our military and investing in our servicemembers.

I remain concerned that the defense funding bill was crafted in an environment in which we have no budgetary certainty. Without a topline budget agreement and a two-year deal to relieve the budget caps put in place by the Budget Control Act between the House, the Senate and the White House, we aren't making spending decisions based in reality. We know all too well how devasting budgetary ambiguity and continuing resolutions can be for defense planning and the real world impacts it has on training and readiness.

Let's be clear about the impacts of sequestration: it would reverse all the progress on readiness and modernization in the past few years. It would cut $20 billion from the Navy and $29 billion from the Air Force. It would stop over 100 Army programs. Quite simply, sequestration would be more devastating to our military than any threat posed by Russia or China. We need all parties to come to the table now and make the tough but critical budget decisions."