In a May 21, 2013, letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, 122 House lawmakers call for funding for the upgrading of the M1A1 Abrams tanks that the National Guard uses.

The Defense Department has provided Congress two reprogramming requests totaling $9.6 billion, according to a cover letter sent to lawmakers on May 17, 2013, by Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale.

In a May 13, 2013, letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), a member of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, call on hagel to deny the Air Force's efforts to wiggle out of a congressional mandate to purchase the remaining three aircraft due to come off the Global Hawk production line.

In a May 14, 2013, "dear colleague" letter, Republican Sens. Tom Coburn (R), John McCain (AZ), Ron Johnson (WI), Rand Paul (KY), Kelly Ayotte (NH) and Jeff Flake (AZ) notify their fellow senators that they will object to the consideration of any legislation that fails to meet certain standards.

In a May 10, 2013, letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, 71 members of Congress voice their support of Army networking modernization and the heavily funded Warfighter Information Network Tactical system, a program that has been targeted for a $128 million funding transfer.

On May 6, 2013, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel urging that New York should host an East Coast missile defense site.

In a May 2, 2013, letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-OK) seek guidance on how to achieve the $52 billion in fiscal year 2014 defense savings required by the Budget Control Act.

In an April 26, 2013, letter, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) calls on Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to deliver the service's annual shipbuilding report to Congress.

On April 30, 2013, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) and 15 other House Armed Services Committee members wrote to House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Bill Young (R-FL) to urge him to include $250 million in funding in the fiscal year 2014 defense spending bill for the East Coast missile defense site.

On April 18, 2013, House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee Chairman Randy Forbes (R-VA) and Ranking Member Mike McIntyre (D-NC) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel regarding the release of the Navy's required ship construction plan.

On April 18, 2013, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and 15 other House members sent a letter to President Obama urging him to clarify recent remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry regarding U.S. ballistic missile defenses in East Asia.

In an April 17, 2013, letter, House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) blasts the Obama administration for what he calls a failure to articulate a "consistent" missile defense strategy.

In a March 27, 2013, letter, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) pushes for answers from Army Secretary John McHugh on why several service units' requests for Palantir -- a commercial-off-the-shelf technology designed to fill a capability gap that the Distributed Common Ground System-Army cannot fulfill -- continue to be denied.

In a March 27, 2013, letter, a bipartisan group of 10 House members asks the Navy to move forward with previously scheduled surface ship maintenance availabilities now that President Obama has signed into law an appropriations bill that funds the Defense Department through the end of fiscal year 2013.

In a March 27, 2013, letter to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-OK) writes that "it makes little sense" to furlough government employees like air traffic controllers and border patrol agents "while retaining employees who are AWOL, on standby, not performing official duties or sitting idle awaiting security clearances."

In a Feb. 1, 2013, letter to congressional leaders, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. James Winnefeld write that the Navy is maintaining and sustaining its aging fleet of EP-3E Airborne Reconnaissance Integrated Electronic System II aircraft, as well as other secretive Special Projects Aircraft, to support the requirements of combatant commanders.

In a March 19, 2013, letter, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA), Vice Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), strategic forces subcommittee Chaiman Mike Rogers (R-AL), tactical air and land forces subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-OH) and 15 other panel members tell Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that the Obama administration's "reluctance" to move forward on the deployment of an East Coast missile defense site "is ill-advised and risky."

In a March 15, 2013, letter issued the same day the Air Force gave contractor Sierra Nevada and its partner, Brazilian company Embraer, the green light to begin assembling 20 light-attack aircraft for Afghanistan, Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts (R) and . . .

In a Feb. 15, 2013, letter, the Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition urges lawmakers "to immediately restore funding for the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)."

In a March 5, 2013, letter to Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Adm. James Syring, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) asks why the agency is furloughing employees rather than making cuts elsewhere in its budget.