After the Senate Armed Services Committee approved boosting the topline of its defense policy bill by $25 billion, the upper chamber’s top appropriator reiterated this week that any defense spending increase must be matched with a similar move for non-defense spending.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Appropriations Committee, affirmed her stance as her panel is set to begin marking up fiscal year 2025 appropriations bills after the Fourth of July recess, with lawmakers likely to consider working around the one percent spending cap set by last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act
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“Now, I am glad so many of my Republican colleagues are in strong agreement—at least when it comes to [increasing] defense [spending],” Murray said in floor remarks on Tuesday. “But every Senator calling to boost defense spending alone is seriously missing the point, and any Senator who thinks I will let us leave nondefense spending behind is seriously misreading the situation.”
During its National Defense Authorization Act markup last week, SASC approved a measure from Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the committee’s ranking member, to increase the topline by $25 billion, authorizing a total of $923.3 billion for national defense (Defense Daily, June 14).
“I appreciate my colleagues who want to do more for defense—and I also think the defense cap is too low—but I feel strongly that increase can’t happen in a vacuum. We have to do more for nondefense as well,” Murray said in floor remarks on Tuesday. “Parity is the order of the day. Because investments in our families, in our economy, in communities’ safety and success are no less important than investments at the Pentagon.”
Wicker had previously proposed boosting the FY ‘25 NDAA topline by as much as $55 billion, part of a larger proposal that called for increasing annual U.S. defense spending from around three percent up to five percent of the gross domestic product (Defense Daily, May 29).
“Last week, we did agree to the defense topline increase of $25 billion and frankly, experts who have done this before tell you that we really needed twice as much. But this is what we could get passed out of the committee,” Wicker said during floor remarks on Thursday. “The topline increase is a down payment on the defense investment that is necessary to keep Americans safe.”
Wicker on Thursday said the NDAA topline boost would help “reverse the downsizing” of the Navy and the Air Force and bring in next-generation weapons “faster,” and that the additional $25 billion includes $5.5 billion to accelerate production of certain munitions and counter-drone capabilities, over $1 billion in space system investments and $6 billion in military construction for upgrades and maintenance at barracks, training ranges and military infrastructure.
A Senate floor vote on SASC’s version of the FY ‘25 NDAA is likely to also wait until after the July 4 recess (Defense Daily, June 18).
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), the Senate’s top defense appropriator, said earlier in May the Pentagon will require a “bigger number” for its FY ‘25 topline and cautioned the imposed spending cap could hinder modernization efforts (Defense Daily, May 8).
The House Appropriations Committee on June 13 approved its $833.1 billion FY ‘25 defense spending bill, with the topline adhering to the spending cap (Defense Daily, June 13).
“I’ve heard concerns about the allocation with people questioning whether it’s both too low or too high. I’ve made my opinion clear that it’s too low,” Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chair of the House Appropriations Defense (HAC-D) Subcommittee, said during last week’s markup. “Despite the challenge posed by the topline, this bill effectively resources a capable, lethal and ready military.”