Austin, Milley to testify Tuesday on FY-23 budget

By Tony Bertuca / March 30, 2022 at 3:52 PM

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Armed Services Committee on the fiscal year 2023 Pentagon budget request, with Democrats and Republicans again poised for a partisan battle over defense spending.

Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) has said he supports President Biden’s FY-23 request for $813 billion for national defense, of which $773 billion would go to the Pentagon, but Republicans have already called for a significant increase.

“We should not settle for a debate over how much money to allocate to the department -- focusing on the dollar amount alone misses the point entirely,” Smith said in a statement. “Instead, we owe the American people a debate over how the department spends resources to address our most significant national security challenges. I look forward to bipartisan discussions with the department’s senior leadership about how this budget addresses the greatest threats to our defense, prioritizes efficiency and agility, aligns with key strategic planning documents like the new National Defense Strategy, and supports our service members and their families -- who are the heart and soul of our national security enterprise.”

But Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the committee’s ranking Republican, has said the budget request does not do enough to keep pace with record inflation and that the GOP intends to push to increase the FY-23 defense topline by 5% above the $782 billion Congress enacted in FY-22, plus an unspecified adjustment for inflation -- an amount some analysts say could be as high as $865 billion.

“For the second year in a row, President Biden has submitted to Congress an inadequate defense budget that does not provide the real growth we need to counter China. As Congress considers this request, it’s clear we need to dig in further on how inflation is affecting the Department of Defense’s buying power now and into the future,” he said in a statement.

Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord said during a Monday press conference that the FY-23 request reflects 1.5% real growth above the FY-22 enacted level when adjusting for inflation.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told reporters Monday the Pentagon expects to continue to adjust its budget because of inflationary pressures that presented themselves after the FY-23 request was complete.

“We’ll be working with Congress through the summer on how this year lands,” she said. “We built into this ‘23 budget the best information that we had at the time. As in any year, we’re going to be working that as we get closer to the reality, and even in execution.”

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