Pentagon chief says a six-month temporary budget bill will have devastating effects on the military
WASHINGTON — Passing a temporary six-month budget bill would have widespread and devastating consequences for the Defense Department, the Pentagon chief said Lloyd Austin he said in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday.
Austin said passing a permanent resolution that caps spending at 2024 levels, rather than taking action on the proposed 2025 budget, will harm thousands of defense programs and hurt military recruitment just as it is beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Asking the Department to compete with (China), let alone manage conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while under a prolonged CR ties our hands behind our backs when we are expected to be agile and accelerate progress,” Austin said in the letter to the leaders of the House and Senate budget committees.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has set a vote this week on a bill that would keep the federal government funded for another six months. The measure is intended to gain support from his more conservative GOP members by also require states to obtain proof of citizenshipsuch as a birth certificate or passport, when you register someone to vote.
Congress must pass an emergency spending bill before the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown just weeks before voters go to the polls. choose the next president.
Austin said the stopgap measure would cut defense spending by more than $6 billion from the 2025 spending proposal. And it would take money away from important new priorities while overfunding programs that no longer need it.
Under a continuing resolution, no new projects or programs can be started. Austin said passing the temporary bill would freeze more than $4.3 billion in research and development projects and delay 135 new military housing and construction projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
It would also slow progress on a number of key nuclear, shipbuilding, high-tech drone and other weapons programs. Many of those projects are located in a range of congressional districts and could also impact local residents and jobs.
Because the bill would not fund legally required pay raises for troops and civilians, the department would have to find other cuts to offset them. Those cuts could eliminate enlistment bonuses, delay training for National Guard and Reserve troops, limit flying hours and other training for active-duty troops, and hamper the replacement of weapons and other equipment pulled from the Pentagon’s inventory and sent to Ukraine.
Continuing with the continuing resolution, Austin said, will “expose service members and their families to unnecessary stress, empower our adversaries, misallocate billions of dollars, harm our readiness, and hamper our ability to respond to emerging events.”
Austin noted that there have been 48 continuing resolutions in 14 of the last 15 fiscal years — for a total of nearly 1,800 days — and said Congress must break the pattern of inaction because the U.S. military cannot compete with China “with our hands tied behind our backs every fiscal year.”
Johnson’s bill is unlikely to gain support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, if it ever gets there. But Congress will have to pass a temporary measure by Sept. 30 to avert a shutdown.