House Republicans on Thursday rolled out a national security strategy focused on ramping up cyber and border security efforts as well more aggressively fighting terrorist groups.
Not included in the document, however, is an explanation of how these additional activities will be funded in future fiscal years, with Budget Control Act spending caps due to return in 2018.
The strategy, helmed by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and the chairmen of the House committee focused on national security, is light on Defense Department-specific language. Instead, it centers predominantly on fortifying homeland security and strengthening foreign powers’ perception of the United States as a force to be reckoned with.
“In the past seven years, our friendships have frayed. Our rivalries have intensified,” Ryan said during a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s not too much to say that our enemies no longer fear us and too many of our allies no longer trust us.”
In the area of homeland security, the strategy calls for identifying and eliminating vulnerabilities in the transportation and immigration systems that could permit terrorists to enter the country. That entails an expansion of the visa security program as well as a more in depth screening process that takes into account social media history.
In addition, Republicans want to “reprioritize the national security agenda” to address the threat of homegrown terror plots, a problem the strategy says receives less funding than climate change. That will entail boosting engagement with communities to prevent radicalization.
The strategy also alludes to potential increased spending for border security agencies. The nation needs “cutting edge tools” and a “strong multi layered approach” to prevent illegal entry into the United States, as well as assets in place to detect invaders in real time.
“We will redouble our efforts to equip ports of entry, frontline defenders and other partners with the critical tripwires for detecting WMD (weapons of mass destruction) threats before they are smuggled into America,” it said.
Improving the nation’s cyber capability is also a priority of Ryan’s strategy. It advocates developing rules and consequences for hacking U.S. infrastructure, as well as improving both offensive and defensive cyber tools.
Although it argued that President Barack Obama has enabled the rise of malicious actors like the Islamic State and a newly aggressive Russia, the 24-page document was relatively light on specifics for how to improve global military operations.
The strategy stresses the need for “adequate, predictable budgets,” but it does not disclose whether Republicans think national security spending should be expanded, or how. The two-year bipartisan budget agreement gave some relief from mandatory spending caps for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, but in 2018 those constraints return.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, acknowledged that the plan does not spell out how it will pay for expansions in border patrol and other security agencies. Overseas Contingency Operations spending could provide one possible funding stream, but most important is that the strategy articulates new priorities, he said.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” McCaul said. “The problem, again, is that the will’s not there.”
Other Republican proposals that tackle issues like health care and the tax code will also reap savings that could provide additional money for national security, said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee.