House Bill Working to Stop Military Downsizing

The downsizing of Army and Marine Corps troops would be ended under an ambitious new House bill being introduced on Capitol Hill, The Hill reports.

The legislation — introduced by Rep. Chris Gibson, a New York Republican, and supported by Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican — would halt the Obama administration's 2017 budget request to reduce the Army to 460,000 active duty forces by the end of 2017 and Marine Corps troops to 182,000 by the end of 2018.

"To put it into perspective, when you look at land forces, the day before the 11th of September, 2001, you were looking at essentially for the active component, 480,000, almost 481,000 [in Army troops]," Gibson said, according to The Hill.

"But these plans, the administration right now plans to take it all the way down to 450,000 in the active component and 335,000 in the National Guard, and the same with the Army Reserve, I think they're taking it down too low."

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