The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has approved its $886 billion version of the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, while SASC lawmakers look for supplemental funding measures that could boost defense spending above the cap set by the debt ceiling agreement.
After marking up the bill on Wednesday and Thursday, to include adopting 286 amendments, the committee voted nearly unanimously to advance the defense policy legislation to the Senate floor.
“This week, the committee approved a bipartisan defense bill that makes our country stronger and safer. It invests in the people, platforms, and programs we need to deter adversaries and safeguard the nation. This bill makes real progress. It addresses a broad range of pressing issues, from strategic competition with China and Russia, to disruptive technologies like hypersonics, AI, and quantum computing, to modernizing our ships, aircraft, and combat vehicles,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the SASC chair, said in a statement.
One of the amendments adopted contains language expressing “the sense of the Senate that there are growing national security concerns that require additional funds beyond the defense spending limit,” according to a summary of the bill.
The debt ceiling bill passed earlier in June locked in an $886 billion defense topline, the level requested in the president’s budget for FY ‘24 and a 3.3 percent increase over FY ‘23, and authorizes a one percent increase in FY ‘25 to the defense and non-defense toplines.
The amendment “urges the President to send emergency supplemental funding requests to address those concerns, to include continued support for Ukraine, additional munitions production, and additional naval vessels and combat vehicles.”
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the SASC ranking member, has called the president’s requested defense topline “woefully inadequate” and said after the NDAA passed that he has Reed’s support to pursue avenues for increasing defense spending.
“I feel strongly that the bill as reported does not adequately fund our defense needs, and I will work to increase the Department of Defense top level as the bill progresses. This is the best way to deter conflict around the globe. I am glad Chairman Reed has also expressed support for higher defense expenditures,” Wicker said in a statement.
Senate leadership has previously offered a commitment to keep open the possibility for supplemental funding measures to add a defense boost, noting the debt ceiling bill does not block the use of emergency spending measures to address security-related items (Defense Daily, June 2).
Senior Senate appropriators on Thursday also signaled further interest in potential supplemental spending measures to boost defense dollars above the cap set by the debt ceiling agreement (Defense Daily, June 22).
“On defense funding, I’ve been voicing concerns for many months, as have many of my colleagues, that the president’s budget request is inadequate and does not fully take into account the effect of inflation,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said on Thursday. “As we move forward, we must secure additional defense funding.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has reportedly pushed back on talk of supplementals to boost defense, arguing it would be a workaround for the spending caps negotiated for the debt ceiling agreement.