Trump Defense budget unlikely to mollify hawks

President Trump’s first federal budget proposal is unlikely to mollify defense hawks who fumed when the administration announced the base defense budget request last month.

The spending blueprint released Thursday maintains $65 billion for a war fund, allocating a total of $639 billion to the Pentagon. Combined with defense dollars outside the Pentagon, Trump’s budget would provide $668 billion total for defense for fiscal year 2018.

Defense hawks, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services committees, respectively, have advocated for a $640 billion base defense budget. Combined with the $60 billion for the war fund projected by the Obama administration, that would have meant a $700 billion defense budget.

{mosads}”It is clear to virtually everyone that we have cut our military too much and that it has suffered enormous damage,” Thornberry said in a statement Thursday. “Unfortunately, the administration’s budget request is not enough to repair that damage and to rebuild the military as the president has discussed.”

Still, he said he appreciated that the request would provide an increase.

“I appreciate the administration’s proposal for additional defense spending this year,” he said. “It is needed and will give us a head start on improving readiness and replacing old equipment. But, it is only one step. We must complete this year’s work by passing the appropriations bill and the supplemental request, and then in turn adopt a budget for next year that meets the needs of the nation’s national security.”

When Trump announced a $603 billion base defense budget late last month, defense budget experts said Trump’s proposal for the war fund, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, would be key to understanding how much of his military buildup he would be able to accomplish.

The OCO account is not subject to budget caps, so Congress has in recent years used it to pay for items generally considered part of the base budget, such as more equipment.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, was an opponent of that approach as a Republican congressman, so it was unclear if he would bulk up the OCO account or slash it.

The Trump budget outline touts the military buildup he has long promised. It contends the budget “strengthens the U.S. Army,” “rebuilds the U.S. Navy,” “ensures a ready and fully equipped Marine Corps” and “accelerates Air Force efforts to improve tactical air fleet readiness, ensure technical superiority, and repair aging infrastructure.”

But defense hawks will likely argue the budget is not enough to begin to address what they describe as an urgent readiness crisis.

In a letter to the Budget Committee earlier this month, Thornberry and other Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee said Trump’s proposed base budget would “unintentionally lock in a slow fix to readiness, consistent with the Obama administration’s previous position, from which we would not be able to dig out.”

This report was updated at 9:14 a.m.