Monday, June 1, 2020
Key Issues NNSA report Iron Dome to CENTCOM LOGCAP V
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.
Congress is poised to vote on a $1.37 trillion appropriations deal this week for fiscal year 2020 that jettisons Democrats' earlier efforts to restrict the Pentagon's ability to reprogram funding, a measure intended to deter President Trump from again unilaterally transferring money meant for military construction and other defense priorities to build barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The House today released the details of its fiscal year 2020 appropriations agreement, merging defense with other spending bills in one of two "minibus" packages.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who has promised major reforms and bold investments, recently said he will soon order U.S. troops be moved from locations of "low-intensity conflict" to areas of "great power competition" in line with the National Defense Strategy, which calls for pivoting away from the Middle East and toward China and Russia.
Congress is poised for some big votes this week. The Senate is slated to vote on the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, while lawmakers are closing in on a final appropriations deal. Watch Inside Defense for news.
Jimmy Stewart, the official who has been performing the duties of the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, has resigned from his post, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, will be leaving his post this month, according to chief Pentagon spokesman Johnathan Hoffman.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today the Senate will vote next week on the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill.
The House voted today to pass the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, hours after President Trump signaled he would sign it.
President Trump released a tweet this morning saying he will sign the compromise version of the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill the House is expected to vote on this afternoon.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) today defended the final version of the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill from the criticism of some left-wing Democrats who said the legislation did not contain enough of the party's liberal priorities, despite including 12 weeks of paid family leave for all federal employees.
Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord today outlined her key goals and challenges for 2020, focusing specifically on implementing new supply chain security standards, fielding counter-drone systems to U.S. troops, developing 5G communications, protecting intellectual property and strengthening the National Technology and Industrial Base.
House and Senate negotiators have finalized a fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill that clears the way for $738 billion in national security spending and establishes a new U.S. Space Force.
The director of the Pentagon's Protecting Critical Technology Task Force is blunt in his assessment of defense contractors' efforts to protect vital U.S. weapon system data from foreign spies: "They blew it."
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill this week. Other senior Pentagon leaders are slated to appear at events around the Washington area.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said today "it is very much possible" that by the end of the day lawmakers could agree on a bipartisan path for the stalled fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill.
Lawmakers negotiating the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill have decided it would be best for congressional appropriators to address President Trump's use of Pentagon funds to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without the consent of Congress, though the authorization bill remains stalled over other issues.
The Pentagon's top policy official said today he favors some of the proposals being promoted by current and former government officials who seek to establish a new technology transfer oversight regime for the United States and its most trusted allies.
The senior Pentagon official who certified in May that Ukraine should receive $250 million in U.S. military aid because it had made sufficient progress combating corruption said today he never got a "very clear explanation" from the White House as to why the funds were delayed over the summer.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said today the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill is being "held hostage" by legislative disagreements beyond his committee's jurisdiction and can only be finalized by Republican and Democratic party leaders.
Congress' inability to pass a fiscal year 2020 budget is delaying the start of a Pentagon study that could change the way defense contractors have been paid for years.