McCain seeks $17B defense spending increase

By Tony Bertuca / May 20, 2016 at 4:46 PM

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) has released a "dear colleague" letter asking for support when he offers an amendment to the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill that would boost defense spending by $17 billion.

McCain first previewed his amendment yesterday at the Brookings Institution.

"I owe you and the rest of my colleagues a candid assessment of the consequences that the current caps on defense spending are imposing on our military," McCain's letter states.

"Specifically, the defense funding level set by the [Bipartisan Budget Act] is $17 billion below the amount that the Department of Defense and our military leaders planned for in last year’s Future Years Defense Plan," the letter continues. "We are asking our military to do more next year than this year -- more in Iraq and Syria, more in Asia, more in Europe to deter Russia, and more in Afghanistan, since the President altered his troop drawdown plan last October -- but in constant dollars, defense spending for fiscal year 2017 is actually less than fiscal year 2016."

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