Federal lawmakers will soon begin debating the second round of the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, but The Hill looks at how the debate is likely to go for the Department of Defense.

“The Pentagon’s budget request for the 2014 fiscal year was $52 billion above the sequester caps set in the 2011 Budget Control Act. If that budget is passed and sequester is not averted, the Pentagon would be cut across-the-board again in 2014.”

“The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee asked the Pentagon to lay out in detail how it would cut $52 billion from its budgets in an attempt to create some political will to reverse the cuts… In all, the automatic budget cuts would reduce Pentagon budgets by $500 billion over the next decade… Sequester opponents are looking to the continuing resolution that will be needed in September and the upcoming debt ceiling debate as opportunities to fight against the automatic budget cuts.”

Crossposted from Wonk Wire.