“I very much hope that we can find a way together out of the wilderness of sequester. Sequester is risky to our defense, it introduces turbulence and uncertainty that are wasteful, and it conveys a misleadingly diminished picture of our power in the eyes of friends and foes alike,” Carter said.
Carter added he supported US President Barack Obama’s budget proposal to increase defense spending above the spending budget caps. Obama’s $561 billion defense budget requests approximately $38 billion over the budget cap levels.
The Pentagon opposes sequestration, arguing in a 2014 report that budget cuts pose a challenge to military readiness and modernization.
The Senate needs to approve Carter to become defense secretary. Current Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced late last year that he would step down after serving in that capacity for nearly two years.