Top military leaders face Congress over the Pentagon’s budget and questions about aid to Israel and Ukraine

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. CQ Brown Jr. testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the Pentagon’s $850 billion 2025 budget, as questions remained about whether lawmakers will pass the current will support spending needs for Israel or Ukraine.

The Senate hearing marked the first time lawmakers on both sides were able to question the Pentagon’s top civilian and military leadership over the Israeli government’s strategy following Tel Aviv’s deadly attack on World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers in Gaza. It also follows continued desperate pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Kiev will lose Russia’s war if the US does not help soon.

In their opening statements, both Austin and Brown emphasized that their 2025 budgets are still shaped with the military’s long-term strategic goal in mind: readying troops and weapons for a possible future conflict with China. About $100 billion of this year’s request is earmarked for new space, nuclear weapons and cyberwarfare systems, which the military says it must invest now before Beijing’s capabilities surpass them.

But the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel pose a challenge to a deeply divided Congress and have resulted in months of delays in passing last year’s defense budget, which was passed by lawmakers only a few weeks ago.

Austin’s opening statement was temporarily interrupted by protesters who raised a Palestinian flag and shouted at him to stop sending weapons to Israel. “Stop the genocide,” they said, raising their red hands in the air.

The Pentagon has rounded up about $300 million in munitions to send to Kiev in March, but can’t send more without support from Congress, and a separate $60 billion supplemental bill that would fund those efforts has been stalled for months .

“The price for American leadership is real. But it is far less than the price of an American abdication,” Austin told senators.

If Kiev falls, it could endanger Ukraine’s Baltic neighbors and potentially drag U.S. troops into a protracted European war. If millions of people in Gaza die from starvation, it could enrage Israel’s Arab neighbors and spark a much broader, deadlier conflict in the Middle East — one that could also wreak decades of damage on American troops and American relations in the region.

The Pentagon has been pressing Congress for months to support new aid to Ukraine, to no avail, and has tried to walk a dangerous line between defending its ally Israel and nurturing ties with key regional Arab partners. Israel’s actions in Gaza have been used as a rallying cry by factions of Iran-backed militant groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Islamic resistance groups in Iraq and Syria, to attack American interests. Three US soldiers have already been killed as drone and missile attacks on US bases in the region increased.

Six US military ships carrying personnel and parts for the construction of a humanitarian aid pier are also still en route to Gaza, but questions remain about how food arriving at the pier will be safely distributed in the devastated area.

Lawmakers also see demands at home. For months, a handful of far-right members have blocked Congress from approving additional money or weapons for Ukraine until domestic needs are addressed, such as curbing the flow of migrants at the southern U.S. border. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is already facing calls to remove him as speaker from Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as Johnson tries to hammer out a compromise that would advance aid to Ukraine to help.

On Israel, the World Central Kitchen strike led to a shift in President Joe Biden’s tone on how Israel should protect civilian life in Gaza and brought dozens of Democrats into the House of Representatives, including the former House Speaker Reps. Nancy Pelosi, to call on Biden to halt arms transfers to Israel. Israel.

Half of Gaza’s population is hungry and on the brink of famine due to Israel’s strict restrictions on the passage of aid trucks.