Cornyn Calls for Ending Military Sequester Cuts in light of National Security Threats

Today on the Senate floor, I called for the Trump Administration and Congress to work together to provide adequate defense funding in order to meet the national security threats facing our nation. This follows my speech yesterday at The Woodrow Wilson Center addressing the state of our military readiness and the need for Congress to work with the Administration to determine long-term defense funding priorities. Excerpts of my remarks are below, and video of my remarks can be found here.

At a time when our growing national security threats require greater investment in technology, we're tying the hands of our military and simply hoping for the best. So if we want to return to a strong American military after years of stress and inadequate funding, we need to start with ending the Department of Defense sequestration.

Until we have the political courage, on a bipartisan basis, to tackle our structural financial problems, we will never adequately fund the military or our other national priorities. We also need a bipartisan commitment to ending continuing resolutions and the self-destructive drama and narrative of potential government shutdowns. And most importantly, perhaps, the Defense Department needs to be able to plan, not just for the duration of the next continuing resolution, but it needs to be able to plan long-term and to spend the money that's appropriated to it in an efficient way.

Congress has a tremendous opportunity, working with the Trump Administration, to propose a strategy to modernize our military and prepare for the next generation of war fighting. Both readiness and modernization have been encumbered by the lack of a coherent national security and foreign policy strategy in recent years, in addition to the blanket restrictions placed on defense spending.

By doing away with the Budget Control Act, putting the Pentagon on a dependable and predictable budget, and developing a coherent national security strategy, we can maintain our status as the top military in the world. And along the way, we can deter our enemies and reassure our allies. We don't need to rewrite the playbook. We need to go back to the basics of governing, providing for our national defense and keeping our fiscal house in order all in light of the challenges and threats these times present.