The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee took aim Wednesday at the Biden administration’s inflation-trailing Pentagon budget in his opening remarks for the full committee National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama said he would seek support for a top-line increase through the defense policy bill. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved $25 billion in additional Pentagon spending for fiscal year 2022 in late July.
“Mr. Chairman, I was disappointed with the President’s defense budget he submitted earlier this year,” Mr. Rogers said in his opening remarks. “It failed to keep pace with inflation. It failed to keep pace with the bipartisan recommendation for 3%-5% growth every year.”
Republicans and some Democrats have expressed frustration with the administration’s proposed budget, which they say would put the military at a disadvantage as the Pentagon eyes growing threats from Russia and China.
“We face near-peer adversaries that now spend more combined on defense than we do,” Mr. Rogers said. “I’m concerned we risk losing our qualitative and quantitative advantage.”
Support for increasing the top-line is by no means assured. House Armed Service Committee Chairman Adam Smith, Washington Democrat, supports a $744 billion Pentagon and Energy Department top-line in his draft mark on the NDAA.
Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee of California and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, both members of the House Appropriations Committee, urged Mr. Smith in an open letter Monday to stiff-arm attempts to inject budget increases in the NDAA.
“At a time when the United States is withdrawing from wars abroad, we should be committed to cutting our defense spending now more than ever,” Mr. Pocan said. “The FY22 NDAA should absolutely be lower than current spending levels, and in no way should it be even a penny more than what the Commander-in-Chief requested or what the House Appropriations Committee approved. The threats of today are different than those of years past and cannot be solved by military might alone.”
The House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Funding Bill, which passed the full committee in a 33 to 23 vote in July proposes a 1.4% year-over-year increase of the Pentagon’s top-line, in line with the president’s proposed budget.