The President’s Fiscal 2016 budget request, which was released Feb. 2, has a lot of good priorities, but there is no way all will be possible in the current climate, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) told reporters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “There’s a lot in there that we want,” said Forbes, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower and projection forces panel, but when the Administration has “to make priority decisions, they tend not to make them for defense.” However, Forbes said there could be some relief from sequestration, in the form of the spending caps being increased. “I am optimistic that we see more and more members of our conference actually beginning to realize just how damning sequestration can be on national defense, so I’m hoping that on defense, we can get some relief,” he said.
U.S. munitions have been expended at a high rate during Operation Epic Fury against Iran, prompting concerns that the Pentagon is eating into weapons stockpiles it needs to deter threats around the world. Yet the newly released $1.5 trillion defense budget request was developed before the war against Iran and…