Overnight Defense: Lawmakers, service chiefs warn of sequester impact

Senate lawmakers and top US military officers on Wednesday issued dire warnings about what would happen if the Defense Department were hit with more budget cuts. "If we in Congress do not act, sequestration will return in full in fiscal year 2016, setting our military on a far more dangerous course," Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said. The chiefs of the four military branches gave a somber accounting of the impact sequester has already had on their members before McCain's committee. "We are now the smallest Air Force we’ve ever been," said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. "We don’t have a bench to go to." Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said the nation’s fleet of ships is the smallest it’s been since World War I. "We do not want to return to the days of a hollow Army," Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told the Armed Services panel, citing the 1970s. The hearing comes days before the Obama administration releases its fiscal 2016 Defense Department budget request. The administration is expected to unveil a base Defense budget of $534 billion when it sends its 2016 spending roadmap to Congress, a figure that goes over federal caps by $35 billion and could trigger mandatory cuts. Despite the dark predictions, few solutions were offered. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told the chiefs that there "has to be a comprehensive solution to this issue, because it will affect you in so many different ways." Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said the "sequester is like invading Brazil after Pearl Harbor -- it’s a vigorous reaction, but it’s the wrong target." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) blamed the White House for not coming up with a solution to override the budget device, but pointed a finger at his colleagues as well. "I don't mean to just beat on the president — this applies to us, too. We’re the ones who created this mess," he said. FAREWELL FOR HAGEL: President Obama declared Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a "great friend" and "American patriot" during a farewell ceremony on Wednesday. "In an era of politics that too often descends into spectacle, you've always served with decency and dignity. And in a town of outsized egos, you've never lost your Midwestern humility," the president said. Hagel, a former Republican senator, resigned in November amid reports that he clashed with members of the president's National Security Council team over its micromanagement of the Pentagon. He has served as Defense chief since 2013. There was no mention of those tensions at the ceremony, although the president noted, "You've always been frank and honest and said what you thought. I have so profoundly benefitted from that candor." The president recalled first meeting Hagel ten years ago when he joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a freshman senator from Illinois. "I'm grateful to Chuck on a very personal level," he said. "I was new and green, you were a veteran legislator. I was the student, and you shared some lessons of your service." Obama noted that Hagel oversaw the "responsible end" of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, helped to reassure allies in Europe and Asia and oversaw the military's efforts to fight Ebola. He also praised Hagel’s reforms to the way the Pentagon deals with sexual assault, his efforts to integrate women into combat jobs and to recover fallen and missing personnel. He also hailed Hagel’s own service in Vietnam. "It's not simply that you've been the first enlisted combat veteran and first Vietnam veteran to serve as secretary of Defense," he said. "It's how your life experience: being down in the mud, feeling the bullets fly overhead, has allowed you to connect with our troops like no other secretary before you." HOUSE DEM INTROS ISIS BILL: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House intelligence committee, said Wednesday he will introduce a bill to authorize the limited use of military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). "More than five months after strikes began against ISIL in Syria and Iraq, Congress has yet to debate and take a vote on an authorization to wage war, in clear abdication of our constitutional duties," Schiff said in a statement, using an alternate acronym for the terror group. "It's my hope that today's introduction of this bill can help jumpstart the process in the House so Congress gets off the sidelines," he added. President Obama has already ordered airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, and deployed 3,100 U.S. troops to Iraq, but Congress has struggled to take a vote on authorizing those actions. The White House has called upon Congress to debate and pass an authorization of force, but some lawmakers say it is the White House's responsibility to send over draft language first. "Congress needs to do its job and debate and vote on an authorization, so the troops we have fighting this war know that we, too, have done our duty," Schiff said. Schiff said his bill will ban the use of U.S. ground forces in combat missions in Iraq or Syria, authorize the use of force for three years, revise the 2002 Iraq Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and sunset both the new and 2001 AUMF after three years. VOTE ON SUICIDE PREVENTION NEXT WEEK: Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said the full chamber will vote Monday on legislation to help prevent suicides among military veterans. The legislation, titled the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, has immense support and passed the House in a unanimous vote earlier this month. The bill was blocked in the upper chamber last year by then-Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who questioned its price tag and said it duplicated other programs. "It’s going to pass," said Isakson, who doesn’t expect any amendments to be offered. The Veterans Affairs Department estimates as many as 22 veterans commit suicide each day and that there are more than 8,000 suicides by veterans every year. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: -- Senator presses Air Force chief on A-10 'treason' comments -- Democrat: GOP 'trying to run the clock' on Benghazi probe -- Spy panel shakeup will add focus on cyber, CIA -- Obama 'literally insane' for Afghan withdrawal, senator says -- Dems push back against border militarization Please send tips and comments to Kristina Wong, kwong@thehill.com, and Martin Matishak, mmatishak@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @thehill,@kristina_wong, @martinmatishak