A savvy DC veteran, Sec. Christine Wormuth didn’t outright call for Congress to go above the budget caps, but, she said, “given that we want to make sure that we are not only able to support Ukraine but that we also replenish our own stocks … a supplemental, I think, would be very helpful.”
Deficit hawks are now nearly extinct and defense hawks are weakened. If the Democrats sweep the next election, eliminating OCO might be the mechanism for a Biden administration to cut defense.
As aircraft shrink, threats expand, and technology accelerates, aircraft engines must iterate along with the threats.
Mark Cancian, who used to help build and oversee execution of the defense budget at the Office of Management and Budget, peels apart the second big spending bill President Trump has proposed to help the government battle the COVD-19 virus.. From his perch at the Center for Strategic and International […]
Rep. Thornberry, the senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the White House move to repurpose military procurement money “is in violation of the separation of powers within the Constitution... and I believe that it requires Congress to take action.”
In other words, the fault is not with the OCO mechanism, but in many cases, with members of Congress who are critiquing its use.
The Trump Pentagon budget is "dead on arrival," a top defense House Democrat says. And a Republican colleague rips budget gimmicks in the 2020 request.
Explore how networked warfare, AI, and 3D-printed drones are reshaping US Indo-Pacific strategy.
Good news: That's more money than the Army thought it could get for its top priorities. Bad news: We won't see most of it this year.
For all the talk of major changes, the Pentagon is pouring money into some pretty traditional priorities.
Trump's pick to replace Sec. Jim Mattis will be a key indicator about where the president wants to drive the department -- and the confirmation process will show what the Senate will accept -- while the defense budget may be collateral damage from a bitterly divided Congress.
Most coverage of the annual defense policy bill has focused on program changes: more ships (including six icebreakers!), no change to F-35’s, more RDT&E, no JSTARS recap, a growl (but no more) on ZTE, and many more (the bill and report run 2,500 pages). Less discussed, but of more import in the long run, are the […]
Six companies have already signed up for a new flight-test program to mature their autonomy software.
After heading off a government shutdown with a “clean” temporary spending bill on December 7th, lawmakers are scrambling to reach a consensus under a new Continuing Resolution that funds the government beyond December 22nd. If leaders cannot come to a final agreement on spending levels and other thorny policy issues for a government spending deal […]
WASHINGTON: Despite reported differences, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees propose almost identical toplines for national security spending. In an apples to apples comparison, after correcting for discrepancies in what the two committees count, HASC’s total is $704 billion, SASC’s is $708. That’s a difference of just 0.6 percent, presenting a strong united front […]
UPDATED: Harrison says Senate Dems are key CAPITOL HILL: The House Armed Services Committee will propose $631.5 billion in funding for defense, HASC staff told reporters this afternoon. That is about 1.4 percent less than the $640 billion HASC chairman Mac Thornberry and his Senate counterpart John McCain campaigned for, but it’s also 4.7 percent above […]
President Trump’s just-released 2018 budget proposal meets the goals set by Secretary Jim Mattis when he came into office, the Pentagon insists, even though the budget does not deliver the impressive defense growth the president promised. Instead, it will, the administration says, be enough to patch up a “depleted” military that needs to be brought back to health after […]