Industry groups praise proposed defense budget boost

Two industry organizations say the budget proposed by the Trump administration provides important increases for defense spending.

In a statement, the Professional Services Council said the boosts in military funding, "if they are focused on sustainment and legacy systems modernization," will "help increase military readiness around the globe."

The Aerospace Industries Association said it welcomes Trump's proposal and embraces the increase in defense spending.

"Civilian and uniformed military leaders have acknowledged that inadequate and uncertain budgets have forced our military to raid long-term investment accounts in order to keep our deployed forces ready," the group said. "Unfortunately, the $603 billion defense budget proposed by the President today will not go far enough toward restoring the lost buying power and delayed modernization imposed by Budget Control Act caps."

AIA endorsed a $640 billion base budget for defense.

However, the groups expressed concern about planned cuts in other areas. David Berteau, PSC's chief executive, said in the statement that the group is concerned about "arbitrary and disproportionate reductions in some agencies."

AIA for its part said it is concerned about cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration and to education funding, particularly to science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.

"The interconnected nature of many government programs mean that cuts will have far-reaching impacts," AIA added. "For instance, the Departments of Commerce and State play important roles in managing U.S. security cooperation with key allies and partners and supporting the global competitiveness of American manufacturers. It is critical to consider the impact of these spending cuts on those missions and our industry's continued ability to generate a trade surplus -- $90 billion in 2016."