Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) recently challenged Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on the effects of sequestration on personnel at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base during a House Armed Services hearing on Tuesday.
Turner, the chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee, also asked Hagel about the military costs of entering a conflict in Syria.
“In my congressional district is the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” Turner said during his questioning time. “Whereas a result of the president’s sequestration, which I opposed, over 12,000 people was furloughed. I have met with some of those people. They had difficulty making house payments, support for their children, car payments. They were concerned about their finances.”
Tuner said the people he spoke with were told that the DoD did not have enough money to pay them.
“And yet now the DoD is telling the American public that it has enough money to take us into this conflict in Syria,” Turner said. “How do you explain that to those people who lost wages and are facing the prospect of losing wages again in 2014 due to the president’s sequestration?”
Hagel said the DoD took five of the planned furlough days back. He also said that if there were to be a strike in Syria, it would be funded during fiscal year 2014.
Tuner said to Hagel that that fiscal year 2014 was subject to sequestration as well.
“National security interest probably trumps budgets and that is up to the Congress to decide and I think that is important,” Hagel said.
Before Tuner turned his questioning over to Secretary of State John Kerry, he thanked Hagel for his response.
“I don’t think anybody quite understands your answer but I appreciate it,” Turner said to Hagel.