Lawmaker says military should not give up on sequestration.

There is no chance that Congress will repeal sequestration before he retires, but Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., insists that lawmakers might find a way to relieve the military and civilian agencies from automatic budget cuts next year.

"My hunch is it will be repealed or reduced, one way or another," said Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Regardless of the outcome of the mid-term election, it is conceivable that Republicans and Democrats could find some common ground on which to build a budget deal that spares both defense and nondefense agencies from automatic cuts, Levin said.

The next round of spending cuts will begin October 2015, unless Congress takes action. "When sequestration hits, people are going to start scrambling around," he said.

Levin is skeptical that the war on the Islamic State that President Marna launched--and its strain on the Pentagon's budget--will break the political deadlock over defense cuts. "It might help," he...