The White House wants to cut an America-class amphib to fund the border wall.

WASHINGTON: One of the top Republican defense lawmakers, Rep. Mac Thornberry, today raised questions about President Trump’s plan to fund his signature border wall by taking $3.8 billion from some of the Pentagon’s top weapons systems, including outright cancellation of two Navy ships, and the National Guard.

The reprogramming request comes just days after the Pentagon delivered a flat budget that slammed the brakes on defense spending growth.

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. graphic from DoD data

Breaking Defense graphic from DoD data

Thornberry said in a statement that the White House move to repurpose military procurement money “is in violation of the separation of powers within the Constitution. The re-programming announced today is contrary to Congress’s constitutional authority, and I believe that it requires Congress to take action.” All funding “must come through the Department of Homeland Security rather than diverting critical military resources that are needed and in law.”

The plan, which a defense official said came from the Department of Homeland Security in January, will be officially released later this afternoon by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A list of talking points were sent across the Pentagon earlier today, noting that the money will go toward funding a 230-mile long wall.

Staffers on Capitol Hill are already saying their offices will oppose the plan. You can expect the National Guard’s powerful allies to resist as well. 

“Today’s reprogramming request confirms once again that the President is obsessed with fulfilling a campaign promise at the expense of our national security,” said Rep. Adam Smith, Democratic chairman of HASC. “The President loves to take credit for ‘rebuilding’ the military, but today’s reprogramming decision does the exact opposite – it will prevent the acquisition of critical ships, vehicles, and aircraft.”

“Any inference that these aren’t critical needs for the Guard is false,” said the president of the influential National Guard Association of the United States, (ret.) Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson. “This is just the Guard being used as a convenient bill-payer.”

The biggest item on the list is a $650 million America-class amphibious assault ship, built by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The money comes in addition to over $7 billion in military construction and counternarcotics funding the White House wants to divert.

Here’s the list:

Base Budget cuts: $2.2 billion total

  • LHA-9 amphibious assault ship (1 ship): $650 million
  • Humvee & other trucks: $201M
  • F-35B fighters (2): $223M
  • V-22 Osprey tiltrotors (2): $155M
  • P-8A Poseidon scout aircraft/sub-hunter (1): $180M
  • EPF Expeditionary Fast Transport ship (1): $261M
  • F-35A fighter Advanced Procurement: $156M
  • C-130J turboprop transports (2): $196M
  • Light Attack Aircraft program: $180M

Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) cuts: $1.6 billion total

  • C-130J transports for Air National Guard (2): $169M
  • MQ-9 Reaper drones (8) $160M
  • National Guard/Reserve Equipment (unspecified): $1.3B

The National Guard Association said the $790 million would come out of the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account, $169 million from C-130Js for the Air National Guard, and $100 million from Army Guard’s Humvee modernization program. “While technically ‘congressional add-ons’ to the president’s formal budget request,” NGAUS says, “the funds were intended to purchase unfunded requirements and are the product of longstanding programs in the annual defense budget process.”

“The services have historically underfunded the National Guard,” said NGAUS president Robinson. “They have done so more recently knowing that Congress will make up some of the difference.”

The White House and Pentagon have said they’re rushing to divest old weapons systems to buy new generations of equipment to counter China and Russia, a strategy these scuttled programs would help fulfill.

Under the reprogramming Air Force and Navy aviation spending takes a big hit. The Marine Corps loses two of six F-35B aircraft added to the ‘20 budget by Congress, while the Navy loses a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft as part of a $558 million cut to all navy aviation programs. The Air Force takes a big $861 million cut across various manned and unmanned programs.

 

This story has been updated with additional quotes.