But DoD has an escape hatch for both the caps, and for sequestration. The overseas contingency operations fund for Iraq and Afghanistan is exempt from those triggers.

And now the Office of Management and Budget has indicated it wants DoD to begin restructuring its budget.

In its "budget passback," OMB said it wants the Defense Department to start moving programs out of the overseas contingency operations budget — or OCO — and into its base budget, Federal Times reported last week.

Gordon Adams, a professor of international relations at American University and former associate director at OMB, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss what the defense budget's restructuring.