Washington DC February 23, 2012: Last week the House and Senate Armed Services Committees held hearings to investigate the serious security and economic impacts of proposed defense budget cuts. Testifying at the House Armed Services Committee hearing on February 17, Secretary of the Army John McHugh stated: “To use an axe to cut a half-trillion dollars from defense spending would be perilous enough, but to do so without providing the department with any means of managing those reductions would be beyond risky.”