July 20, 2010

Rethinking our Defense Budget: Achieving National Security through Sustainable Spending

On Tuesday, July 20, 2010, at 10 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs held a hearing entitled, “Rethinking our Defense Budget: Achieving National Security through Sustainable Spending.”

This hearing continued the Subcommittee’s oversight of defense spending by examining recent scholarship and policy research on defense budget reform, including the conclusions and recommendations made in a recent report by the Sustainable Defense Task Force, Debt, Deficits, & Defense: A Way Forward, which presents a series of recommendations to reduce the budget of the Department of Defense by $960 billion by 2020.

Witnesses offered perspectives on the Department of Defense’s plan to cut military spending in the context of national security priorities and the current economic environment. The Department of Defense’s budget has accounted for nearly 65 percent of the increase in federal discretionary spending since 2001. Citing the role of defense spending in the overall economic health of the United States, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently called for reductions in defense spending by eliminating wasteful spending and unnecessary weapons systems, and reducing overhead costs at the Pentagon.

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WITNESSES

• Carl Conetta, Co-Director, Project on Defense Alternatives;
  
• Benjamin Friedman, Research Fellow, Cato Institute;
  
• Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments;
  
• Gary Schmitt, Ph.D., Resident Scholar and Director, Advanced Strategic Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; and
  
• Gordon Adams, Ph.D., Distinguished Fellow, Stimson Center

DOCUMENTS AND LINKS

Opening Statement of Chairman John F. Tierney

Prepared Statement of Mr. Carl Conetta

Prepared Statement of Mr. Benjamin Friedman

Prepared Statement of Mr. Todd Harrison

Prepared Statement of Dr. Gary Schmitt

Prepared Statement of Dr. Gordon Adams