Republican Defense Hawks Draw Line on Pentagon Spending
By Kristina Wong – 10/19/15 03:43 PM EDT
Over 100 Republican lawmakers on Monday said they would not vote for any spending measure that leaves less than $561 billion for the Defense Department’s base budget as requested by the Obama administration.
The letter also warns the Republican leadership against extending the current short-term funding measure — known as a continuing resolution — for the full year, which would fund the Pentagon for the full fiscal 2016 year at 2015 levels.
“We believe a full-year continuing resolution is unacceptable and that base requirements for national defense must be funded at or above the $561 billion amount included in the President’s budget request,” said the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces.
“Seeking to fund our defense activities through a full-year continuing resolution would bring about devastating consequences to our national security and would amount to an abdication of our principal duty to ‘provide for the common defense’ of the nation,” the letter continued.
The letter, addressed to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) puts a wrinkle in Republican plans to maintain defense spending caps and fund the Pentagon’s base budget at $523 billion while adding $89 billion to a separate war fund.
Republicans and the White House are at a budget impasse, with the White House insisting that Congress lift the budget caps put into place in 2011, and Republican fiscal hawks demanding that they be left in place.
A compromise was drawn between Republican defense hawks and fiscal hawks to leave the base budget at $523 billion, but add the extra war funding to meet the administration’s request of $612 billion overall.
The president’s budget requests $561 billion in base funding, but would add $51 billion for war funding. The president has vowed to veto any spending bill that leaves the spending caps in place.
The new letter moves away from the GOP compromise, as defense hawks have growing fears that Republican leaders may simply seek to extend the short term spending measure currently in place, which funds the Pentagon at 2015 levels.
The letter is signed by 101 House Republicans, including members of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.
“I am proud to continue to lead the fight for a strong national defense that allows our men and women in uniform to address threats that endanger our national security,” Turner said in a statement on Monday.
“We should not play political games on the backs of our warfighters. If Congress fails in its principal duty to ‘provide for the common defense’ of the nation, we will see devastating consequences to national security,” he said.
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