"I think some check on the ability of the president to do this has merit," the former Defense secretary said.

McCain (R-Ariz.) said he held "grave concerns" about Obama's nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as secretary of Defense.

That authority could be patterned after the intelligence oversight responsibilities under the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act.

The Pentagon will again have to cut the size of military forces if planned across-the-board spending cuts from sequestration go into effect, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Saturday.

The Budget Control Act of 2011 forced one round of cuts, Dempsey told reporters traveling with him to Afghanistan, according to Reuters.

Secret Defense Department studies are the latest to highlight problems with the defense plan.

A Senate GOP aide said that the disclosures did not sufficiently address the concerns of Republican senators.

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the President Obama Friday after a fact sheet released by the White House on the impact of the sequester did not include information about potential defense cuts.

"Today the White House finally broke their silence on the consequences President Obama's sequester would have on domestic spending. I wouldn't downplay those important impacts, but I was stunned at the President's silence on national security risks and I am frustrated that he continues to look to our men and women in uniform to pay the cost of America's debt crisis," McKeon said in a statement. "After all, it is their lives that are at greater risks today, because of the cuts already imposed."

Speaking to reporters shortly after the release of the fact sheet, Office of Management and Budget federal controller Danny Werfel said that because "there has been in the public domain a lot of discussion to date about the impact that the sequester would have on the defense realm," the White House wanted to highlight that "the impacts on our domestic priorities as a nation would be just as severe."

The spokesman said Obama rejected a plan to arm the Syrian rebels because a “lack of weapons” isn’t the problem.

In a remarkable show of bipartisanship, members of the House Judiciary Committee are putting a full-court press on the White House to release classified memorandums on the administration's legal justification on the use of armed drones against suspected terrorists.