Key lawmaker calls Trump defense budget request low

The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee called President Donald Trump's reported $603 billion defense budget request low on Monday, a sign of the fight ahead between Trump's party and Democrats, who oppose slashing non-military spending to boost Pentagon funding.

"Over the course of the Obama Administration, our military funding was cut 20 percent while the world grew more dangerous.��While we cannot repair all of the damage done by those cuts in a single year, we can and should do more than this level of funding will allow," Representative Mac Thornberry said in a statement.

"The administration will have to make clear which problems facing our military they are choosing not to fix," he said.

It was not immediately clear why Thornberry alluded to a $603 billion figure.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Jonathan Oatis; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)