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Friends-
This week, the House acted on two bills with significant impacts to our nation's military: the National Defense Authorization Act and a budget plan that halted additional, devastating defense cuts set to go into effect in the next two years. These bills, while far from perfect, restored much-needed certainty and critical resources to our nation's military.
As a Marine veteran, a member of Mississippi's National Guard, and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I believe that my number one constitutional responsibility is providing for the defense of our nation. That is why I spent the last two years fighting against these devastating defense cuts - also know as sequestration - that are threatening our armed forces. Instead of taking equal cuts from domestic programs, or getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse, this Administration has insisted on taking fifty percent of sequestration cuts from defense - which makes up only twenty percent of the budget.
These cuts have threatened our military communities from Keesler Air Force Base and the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center to the Navy Construction Battalion and Camp Shelby. They affect the shipbuilding work so many in South Mississippi do in support of our warfighters. These cuts are the reason so many have faced furlough threats, and why the military has tried to find savings by cutting ROTC programs or shutting down commissaries.
These drastic cuts have bent our forces; further cuts could break our nation's defense. Just this fall, we learned that more sequestration cuts could force the Department of Defense to lay off tens of thousands of troops and thousands of civilian workers. I've sat in meetings across from generals who've said continuing to cut our military in this way would make it impossible to carry out our missions and properly defend our nation at home and abroad.
That is simply unacceptable. That is why I supported the budget plan that finally begins to relieve our military from some of these devastating cuts. It also cut spending by $85 billion, and reduces the deficit by $23 billion.
As always, I encourage you to connect with me using my website, twitter, and facebook.
Congressman Steven Palazzo
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