Defense & National Security — House panel advances defense spending bill

by Ellen Mitchell - 06/22/22 8:13 PM ET

The House Appropriations Committee held a markup of its defense spending plan, approving a $761 billion bill for fiscal year 2023.

At the same time, the House Armed Services Committee is holding negotiations on the annual military authorization bill.

We’ll share what’s in both bills, plus Ukraine’s latest pleas for more weapons from the West and delays in the Jan. 6 hearings.

This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Ellen Mitchell. Subscribe here.

Appropriations panel advances $761 billion bill

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved its $761 billion defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2023, sending the bill to the full chamber for a vote.

The legislation, which the committee passed by a 32-26 vote, is $33.2 billion over what was enacted for fiscal 2022 and largely in line with President Biden’s budget request.
While the bill makes up a majority of appropriations for the Department of Defense, it is not the only source of defense spending.
The bill does not include $15.1 billion in funding for military construction projects, which is included in a separate $314.1 billion appropriations bill that the committee will consider Thursday.

What it includes: Among its provisions, the legislation supports a 4.6 percent pay raise for military personnel and requires contractors to pay a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Democrats warded off an attempt to strike from the bill a provision that would protect service members’ and civilian personnel’s ability to take leave to obtain an abortion.
An attempt to strike the provision that would close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was also turned down, but had the support of two Democrats.
The committee adopted several amendments to the bill, including two from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) to repeal the 2001 and 2002 war authorizations.

Panel votes to up Biden defense budget by $37B

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted to approve approximately $37 billion more in military spending than President Biden proposed.

During a markup of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, the committee voted 42-17 to increase topline spending from $802 billion to about $840 billion.

Where the extra will go: The increase, which was opposed by committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.), was proposed in an amendment sponsored by Democratic Reps. Jared Golden (Maine) and Elaine Luria (Va.).

The billions of extra dollars would go toward more aircraft, ships, assistance for Ukraine and to combat the current inflation crisis “to improve servicemember quality of life,” according to a statement put out by Golden after the vote.

Meanwhile: The extra dollars bring the House committee’s version closer to the $857 billion bill the Senate Armed Services Committee passed last week. Both armed services committees have blasted past the Biden administration’s original $813 billion defense topline.

Biden’s version, which is a 4 percent increase in defense spending for fiscal year 2023 compared to the year prior, has been criticized by Republicans and more moderate leaning Democrats for being unable to counter inflation and current world threats.

Read that story here

Ukraine asks for more weapons amid land pressure

Ukraine is pleading for heavier weapons, more ammunition and fighter jets as Russia has focused its efforts in the country’s eastern Donbas region, a fight taking place amid a brewing debate over whether Ukraine should cede some of the land in an effort for peace.

Even with the Biden administration’s new commitment of $1 billion in lethal aid that was announced last week, Ukrainian officials say it’s still not enough (by a long shot) to beat back Kremlin forces.
Ukraine has received far less than what it has asked for to help stave off the Russian offensive — only 10 percent of the weapons it requested from Western nations — according to Ukrainian officials.

A wide gap: Such needed aid may be far from making it to Ukraine. NBC reported last week that President Biden in April asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to tone down their rhetoric supporting Ukraine in its war.

While the Biden administration has maintained that it will not pressure Kyiv to end the war, behind the scenes, U.S. officials are growing worried that Ukraine’s views not to cede any land are untenable, according to the report.

A long war predicted: Biden on Tuesday acknowledged that drawn-out timeline, telling reporters he believes “at some point, this is going to be a bit of a waiting game. … What the Russians can sustain and what Europe is going to be prepared to sustain.”

He said he would discuss the issue with allies next week when he travels to Madrid for the NATO summit.

In the spotlight: Publicly, the U.S. has maintained a strong commitment to Ukraine, with top U.S. leaders defending Washington’s efforts to equip Ukraine so far, brushing off criticisms that Western nations have not done enough.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday made an unannounced trip to Ukraine, where he expressed “the unwavering support of the United States for the people of Ukraine in the midst of the unprovoked and unjust Russian invasion.”
And Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley was with Austin in Brussels last week to meet with officials from nearly 50 other nations to coordinate the delivery of needed weapons into Ukraine.

Out of sight: But comments have emerged from former U.S. officials suggesting that Ukraine end the slog of their defensive by ceding some territory to Russia in the name of peace.

Those include former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who said earlier this year that “negotiations on peace need to begin” between Moscow and Kyiv and that “ideally, the dividing line should return the status quo ante.”

Read the full story here

Jan. 6 committee delays hearing schedule until July

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is pressing pause on its hearings for next week and picking them up again in July.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the committee, told reporters Wednesday that the committee would hold off on the two final hearings it had planned for this month.
“We’ve taken in some additional information that’s going to require additional work. So rather than present hearings that have not been the quality of the hearings in the past we made a decision to just move into sometime in July,” Thompson said.

Upcoming: Thursday’s hearing will continue as planned.

“There’s been a deluge of new evidence since we got started. And we just need to catch our breath, go through the new evidence, and then incorporate it into the hearings we have planned,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) similarly mentioned a “mountain of new information.”

No date yet: “I don’t think we’ve established a date yet, but we have a mountain of new information that’s come in that we have to go through,” Lofgren told The Hill.

The committee has recently received more information from the National Archives, and Raskin said it has also received information from other various sources — a comment that comes after the committee flashed its web address in the hopes of enticing new witnesses.

Read that story here

ON TAP TOMORROW

The Center for a New American Security will hold a virtual discussion on “Military Food Insecurity and Financial Stability” at 12 p.m.
The Atlantic Council will hold a virtual talk on the food insecurity crisis focusing on the link to the war in Ukraine at 3:30 p.m.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies will hold a discussion on “America’s Defense Trade” at 3:30 p.m.

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