Senate Republicans are on a collision course with Democrats, who insist that non-defense spending programs receive equal treatment as defense programs.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) says he will not accept Democrats’ demand to give nondefense programs the same increases — dollar for dollar — as defense programs, which he said should be considered a much higher priority.
“I can’t accept that at all,” McConnell said last week of dollar-for-dollar parity between defense and nondefense spending increases.
“We have two big competitors, the Russians and the Chinese. We have the Iranians and we have their representatives. This is the most dangerous time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and defense spending needs to reflect our country’s needs, which clearly argues against an arbitrary line that does not spend more on defense than domestically.
“So I certainly disagree with that and we will have a vigorous discussion about that,” he said.
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), vice chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, is on McConnell’s side.
“Given defense underfunding and the global threats we face, I do not believe parity can be achieved,” she said.
McConnell and Collins are rejecting Democratic demands for parity after Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) insisted that nondefense and defense programs be increased in tandem.
“For me, the word of the day, today and every day until we pass our funding laws, will be ‘parity.’ By this I mean that when my Republican colleagues insist that, despite the Fiscal Responsibility Act, we need to increase spending on national security, I will also insist that increased defense spending be accompanied by a similar increase in investment here in home,” Murray said previously. this month.
The Democratic leader of the Appropriations Committee acknowledged that “this year will be difficult from a resource perspective”, but called for “bipartisan cooperation” so that the bills are approved by the end of the year.
Other Democrats are supporting Murray’s call to increase both non-defense programs and national security priorities.
“The parity agreement has been part of keeping Congress functioning for years,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a prominent progressive.
“With supplemental budgets and various accounting complications, the military budget often performs better than the non-military budget,” she said.
Democrats point out that the $95 billion supplemental national security spending package that President Biden signed into law last month included a robust new portion of defense spending.
Warren scoffed at the idea held by some Republicans that defense spending is more vital to the nation’s interests than social programs.
“It is essential that we keep our roads and bridges in good condition. It is essential that our children have access to healthcare. It is essential that we make this country work. America has underinvested in our basic infrastructure for decades, and we pay that price every day when it takes us longer to get to work, when goods and services can’t get to where they belong,” she said.
“The idea that only certain types of spending are essential is fundamentally wrong,” she said.
But Murray’s call to raise defense and non-defense priorities in line with each other is failing Republicans.
“This is bullshit,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who is running to replace McConnell as Senate GOP leader at the end of the year.
“We just appropriated $95 billion for what is essentially for national defense,” he said, referring to the recently enacted supplemental defense spending package.
“This idea that we are going to continue to accumulate more and more debt to obtain more domestic spending at a time when the threats are as serious and serious as they are now is simply ridiculous. It’s going to be a great fight,” Cornyn said.
He predicted that Democratic demands for parity between defense and non-defense spending increases will be “a real problem.”
Democrats argue that funding for some vital national security programs, such as those at the Department of Homeland Security and funding for domestic semiconductor production, comes from the nondefensive side of the ledger.
Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee were largely on the same page last year when it came to passing annual appropriations bills.
This is because they agreed a year ago to follow the top spending targets set by the Fiscal Responsibility Law, which essentially froze non-defense spending and increased defense spending by 3.3 percent.
The 12 annual appropriations bills passed the Senate committee with overwhelming bipartisan support, and the most controversial appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security lost just a few votes.
Under the Fiscal Responsibility Law, non-defense and defense expenditure levels are expected to increase by 1% in fiscal year 2025.
But Republicans, including McConnell, and some Democrats, like Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), are signaling that a 1% increase in defense spending won’t be enough to keep up with threats from Russia, China and Iran. .
“On the defense side, a 1 percent increase is simply not adequate for the conditions we are dealing with,” Tester, chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, told The Hill on Thursday.
Collins said Democrats’ demands will likely make it more difficult to pass fiscal 2025 spending bills.
“I hope they don’t pursue this because it would disrupt the bipartisan nature of the bills we’ve been able to introduce so far,” she said.
Senate appropriators also face a conflict with the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who on Thursday announced spending goals that he said would amount to a 6-month cut. percent in non-defense programs and a 1 percent cut in non-defense programs. percentage increase for defense.
Murray released a statement criticizing House Republicans’ spending goals for undermining the level that then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed to with Biden last year for non-defense programs.
“As we write our bills in the Senate, we will include all the features that House Republicans and the president agreed to last year. Doing anything less would mean devastating cuts that would harm families and set our country back. Let’s not repeat last year’s mistakes, which only brought us months of chaos and delays,” he warned.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
