Biden proposes 1.7% bump for defense
Turner, other officials argue 3-5% increase is what’s called for.
President Joe Biden Friday proposed a 1.7% increase in national defense programs in his budget request to Congress for discretionary fiscal year 2022 spending.
The budget request outlines $769 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, a 16% increase over fiscal 2021 spending, and $753 billion for defense, a 1.7% increase.
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, took issue with the proposal, saying Department of Defense officials believe a 3% to 5% increase is more in line with national defense priorities.
“President Biden’s proposed ‘skinny’ budget fails to account for this growth, and this could mean cuts to critical programs,” Turner said in a statement. “While I’m encouraged that the Biden administration intends to support nuclear modernization, amid growing threats from China, North Korea, Iran and Russia, any defense cuts will be cause for concern.”
Biden should “put American national security interests first by following the advice of military experts as he prepares the full details of his budget proposal,” added Turner, who serves as ranking member of the House Armed Service Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, the committee which has jurisdiction over the nation’s nuclear arsenal, DoD intelligence programs and missile defense systems.
Turner’s office also released a letter from Armed Services Committee Republicans calling on Biden to support the modernization of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
Overall, Biden’s $1.5 trillion wish list for the federal budget seeks an 8.4% increase in operating budgets with substantial gains for Democratic priorities like education, health care, housing and environmental protection.
It’s the first financial outline of Democrats’ broader ambitions since the expiration of a 2011 law that capped congressional spending, the AP said.
“Overall, the discretionary request would restore non-defense discretionary funding to 3.3% of GDP (gross domestic product), roughly equal to the historical average over the last 30 years, while providing robust funding for national defense, as well as for other instruments of national power — including diplomacy, development and economic statecraft — that enhance the effectiveness of national defense spending,” Shalanda Young, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said in a letter Friday to Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Confirmed by the Senate in March, Young was the first confirmed leadership official at OMB after Biden’s pick for director withdrew from consideration.
The request by the White House budget office spells out Biden’s top priorities as Congress weighs its spending plans for next year.
At stake is roughly one-third of the huge federal budget that is passed by Congress each year, funding the military, domestic Cabinet department operations, foreign policy and homeland security. The rest of the budget involves so-called mandatory programs that are locked in and basically run on autopilot, chiefly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
This so-called discretionary spending passes each year on a bipartisan basis through Capitol Hill’s time-tested appropriations process.
The appropriations process was, in fact, one of the few consistent success stories of former President Donald Trump’s tumultuous four-year tenure in office, but this year’s budget cycle is not governed by a broader outline. The lapse of formal “caps” on appropriations opens the door to more domestic spending favored by Biden and Democrats but invites a battle with Republicans over military accounts.