The U.S. war news and analysis website UNSI News reports that a debate is brewing among U.S. federal lawmakers on the issue of defense spending. Progressive lawmakers want to push for a reduction in defense spending in fiscal 2022, while others advocate increasing construction costs for naval vessels.
The Biden administration has scheduled a draft 2022 budget for introduction this May, and Bloomberg News and Politico recently reported that the Defense Department’s 2022 budget would be roughly between $704 billion and $708 billion, the same as defense spending in 2021.
On March 6, 50 progressive Democratic House members wrote a letter to Biden suggesting a reduction in Defense Department spending. In the letter, they wrote, “We hope this administration will significantly reduce Pentagon spending. Even if defense spending is cut by more than 10 percent, the U.S. military, still spends more than the combined spending of all 10 armed forces after the United States.”
These progressive House members also claim that “the cuts could pay off even more if they were invested in diplomacy, humanitarian aid, global public health, sustainability initiatives, and basic research.”
A day before the Democratic lawmakers’ letter was sent to Biden, three Republican senators and one non-partisan senator, wrote a letter to the secretary and deputy secretary of defense advocating for a push to expand the Navy and build ships in the 2022 budget. The letter reads, “The Navy’s large surface combatant force, which protects freedom of passage in international shipping lanes in the South China Sea, leads maritime security patrols in the North Atlantic and deters Iran in the Persian Gulf, must be the mainstay of the ship-building program.”
The Biden Administration is currently reviewing the budget for fiscal year 2022 set by the previous administration, with shipbuilding at the top of the assessment, and a plan released by the Trump administration in December showed that the FY 2022 shipbuilding budget would receive a boost. But it is unclear how the Biden administration will handle the 2022 defense budget.
USNI News reported last week that the Pentagon is considering reducing Navy carriers, which has been criticized by some lawmakers. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Vice Chairman Elaine Luria, a former Navy surface warfare officer, said, “As we seek to expand the U.S. Navy’s presence in response to malicious Communist activities and illegal maritime encroachment, the last thing we should be considering is cutting carriers.”
The Virginia Democrat also called for an increase in the Pentagon’s budget, stating, “Our defense budget should grow at a rate of 3-5 percent above Inflation to address the growing Chinese Communist threat. The unparalleled power and deterrence provided by our nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and the fleets of aircraft they carry cannot be measured in terms of value. I urge the Biden Administration to abandon this consideration immediately.”
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