Randy Forbes: Leading the fight for more military funding

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) is among the handful of lawmakers who have been battling the continuing assault on the nation’s military budget. For now, he concedes, his prospects for success remain dim.

“The Pentagon will be forced to budget with the lower figures,” Forbes told FCW. “It’s difficult for many members to look in the mirror and admit that they made a mistake.”

Forbes laments that the diminishing corps of military hawks in Congress has had little impact on the budget struggle. In particular, he has fought the continuing Pentagon spending reductions mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011. Although Congress voted in December to restore $22 billion of that spending, that still leaves the Defense Department with $32 billion in cuts for fiscal 2014 and a new ceiling of $520 billion. In 2010, DOD’s budget authority was $696 billion, according to the Office of Management and Budget.