UPDATE 1-Bid for more US defense funds gets chilly House reception | Reuters: U.S. military officialsseeking a big boost in defense spending received littleencouragement on Thursday from a House panel reviewing their bidfor more funds, with one lawmaker saying the extra money wouldhave to be cut "with you or ... without you."
Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, a senior member of theAppropriations Committee in the House of Representatives, chidedPresident Barack Obama for proposing a $534 billion Pentagonbase budget that "ignores the law" by exceeding federal spendingcaps by nearly $35 billion.
Frelinghuysen told Navy and Marine Corps leaders to submitspecific lists of programs that could be cut if Congress failedto approve the Democratic president's request for more funding.
"With respect, I will advise you that we will cut the $13billion with you or we will cut it without you, but we need todo the job the law requires us to do," he said, noting theNavy's budget request was about $13 billion above the levelsallotted under spending limits passed in 2011.
"We are bound to follow the law until instructed otherwise,"he said.
Frelinghuysen told reporters after the hearing that he sawgrowing consensus that the military needed more flexibility todeal with "a dangerous world," but said theRepublican-controlled Congress was far from agreement onremoving budget caps known as "sequestration."
