Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Senate appropriators today that failing to add $30 billion to the Pentagon's coffers in fiscal year 2017 would further risk military readiness.
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Tony Bertuca is chief editor of Inside the Pentagon, the flagship publication of InsideDefense, where he focuses on defense budget and acquisition policy. He previously worked for the Sun-Times News Group in his hometown of Chicago, IL, and at the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, NH. Tony has also served as managing editor of Inside the Army. He has a master's degree in journalism from Boston University.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Senate appropriators today that failing to add $30 billion to the Pentagon's coffers in fiscal year 2017 would further risk military readiness.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) and his House counterpart Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) expect President Trump's fiscal year 2018 budget proposal, which would make steep cuts in domestic spending to boost defense funding, to fail in Congress.
A panel of House lawmakers on Tuesday debated how much could be saved by streamlining Pentagon business practices and, though they differed along partisan lines on what to do with the savings, a bipartisan consensus emerged that billions in waste could be slashed at a time when President Trump has proposed steep cuts to domestic spending to increase the Defense Department's budget.
Congressional leaders will be challenged in the coming weeks to address President Trump's budget plans for fiscal year 2017, specifically a budgetary amendment that would increase defense spending by an additional $30 billion, but would break spending caps lawmakers have already agreed upon.
The week ahead is packed with major events including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' first appearance on Capitol Hill since taking charge of the Pentagon, as well as several other congressional hearings and conferences featuring senior military officials.
Pentagon officials made clear Thursday they would "like to have" the additional $30 billion in fiscal year 2017 as requested by a White House budgetary amendment, but not at the expense of a yearlong continuing resolution, or government shutdown, which some experts think the FY-17 package might trigger.
The White House is seeking a fiscal year 2017 budget amendment that would break spending caps agreed to by congressional Republicans and Democrats and could lead to a shutdown that might ultimately endanger additional defense spending this year.
The White House's fiscal year 2018 budget would boost national security spending by $54 billion, paid for by a 28 percent cut to the State Department, as well as double-digit cuts to other executive agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are slated to testify March 22 before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on the Defense Department's budget.
Though the White House has touted the president's accomplishments after 50 days in office, many national security insiders are concerned Defense Secretary James Mattis, the only Trump appointee at the Pentagon, is being hamstrung by the administration's failure to fill senior-level vacancies in the Defense Department's policymaking office.
President Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the head of each executive branch agency to submit proposals to the White House Office of Management and Budget for potential reorganization that could lead to cuts and consolidation.
Driving the week is the expected release of the Trump administration's budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018. Meanwhile, congressional defense committees have scheduled a variety of hearings.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said today that Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney will release the Trump administration's "skinny budget" for fiscal year 2018 on March 16.
The White House released a list of several national security accomplishments from President Trump's first 50 days in office, highlighting his review of a strategy to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria; a defense budget proposal that has drawn opposition from fellow Republicans; and the president's own efforts to lower the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which experts say was already set to come down.
Some must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) intensified his call for billions in additional defense spending after a trip with Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), who chairs the House Budget Committee, to an Army base in Tennessee beset by readiness shortfalls.
Senior Pentagon officials told House lawmakers Wednesday that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is "nearing a crossroads" and will require expensive concurrent modernization of the all three legs of the triad and the infrastructure that enables it.
The Senate Armed Services Committee voted to advance the nomination of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the White House national security adviser, to the full Senate for a vote that would allow him to be reappointed to his 3-star rank.
Following a series of North Korean ballistic missile launches over the weekend, the United States has deployed the first elements of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the Korean Peninsula.
The House is expected to vote on the fiscal year 2017 defense appropriations bill this week, while the White House Office of Management and Budget is expected to send Congress a request for supplemental FY-17 defense spending.