Congress

Congress, despite having agreed to a broad budget deal, has begun looking for stopgaps and schedule extensions for the defense spending and policy bills, which are already overdue and remain stalled amid partisan fighting over President Trump's use of military construction funds to build a southern border wall.

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) says the impeachment inquiry into President Trump's hold on Ukraine aid is "sucking all the oxygen out of the room" as lawmakers look to negotiate contentious issues in the defense authorization and appropriations bills, respectively.

The Navy used the recent maintenance availability of the fast-attack submarine Asheville (SSN-758) to build a "digital twin" of its Hawaii-based public shipyard, an effort it plans to replicate elsewhere next year, according to two senior service officials.

A partisan battle over President Trump’s efforts to divert Defense Department money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is poised to snarl House and Senate negotiations over upcoming defense policy and spending bills, despite lawmakers having already reached a broad budget agreement.

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) said today he and his GOP colleagues have yet to decide whether they will support the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill slated for consideration tomorrow, but he does have plans to offer amendments that would increase total defense spending and block Democratic efforts to cut nuclear weapons programs.

House lawmakers want to explore options for folding the Missile Defense Agency into other Defense Department organizations and removing an exemption in place for 17 years that allows development and procurement of ballistic missile defense programs outside traditional weapon system acquisition rules.

The House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee is seeking to restrict funding for the Marine Corps' new heavy-lift helicopter program until the Navy briefs the full committee.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has agreed to defense authorization bill that would require the Defense Department's annual report on Chinese military strength include a new assessment of Beijing's overseas investments related to national security objectives.

The Democrat-led House Appropriations defense subcommittee, still smarting from the Pentagon's recent unilateral budget transfers to build barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, has drafted a bill that would reduce and restrict the Pentagon’s future ability to reprogram funds.