Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and DOD Comptroller Michael McCord told House appropriators Thursday that House Republican budget proposals could negatively impact national security and reduce war-fighting readiness, as The Hill reported.

Some House Republicans are sticking to a budget deal they cut with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during his prolonged bid to win the chamber’s top gavel. They say they got his assurances to return to the fiscal year 2022 budget.

“We would have to cut a significant amount of programs” to meet that level of spending reduction, Milley told lawmakers Thursday, citing artillery production and shipbuilding. “Our training would be reduced significantly… all of those things would come down, all your readiness levels, everything that has been achieved [in the last decade] would start going in the opposite direction.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the cuts would hit DOD’s civilian workforce and cybersecurity efforts from adversaries.

“If we cut those kinds of people, I think it will have a significant impact on our war-fighting capability,” Austin said. “Cyber threats in this day and age are enormous, and they come from every corner of the globe.”

Milley also spoke to the idea of scaling back U.S. support for Ukraine, saying abandonment would lead to a global conflict, as Military.com reported.

“We’ll be doubling our defense budgets at that point, because that will introduce not an era of great power competition. That’ll begin an era of great power conflict,” Milley said. “And that’ll be extraordinarily dangerous for the whole world.”

DOD photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Kubitza