Passage of six-month interim spending bill would have widespread and devastating consequences for the Department of defense, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a letter sent today to key congressmen, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
Austin said passing the document, which caps spending at 2024 levels, instead of acting on the proposed 2025 budget, would hurt thousands of defense programs as well as military recruitment, just as the process is starting to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.
„To ask the department to compete with China, let alone manage conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while under a temporary budget, ties our hands behind our backs while they expect us to be flexible and make progress.&ldquo ;, Austin said in the letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican, has scheduled a vote this week on a bill that would provide the federal government with funds for an additional six months. The measure aims to garner support from his more conservative congressional peers by requiring states to require proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate when a person registers to vote.
Congress must pass a temporary spending bill before the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 to avoid shutting down the federal government just weeks before voters go to the polls to choose the next US president.
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Austin said the temporary measure would cut defense spending by more than $6 billion compared to the 2025 spending proposal. He said it would take money away from key new priorities while funding programs that no longer need them.
With a temporary budget, no new projects or programs can be started. Austin said passage of the interim budget would halt more than $4.3 billion in research and development and delay 135 new military housing and construction projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
It would also slow progress on a number of key programs related to nuclear weapons, shipbuilding and high-tech drones, which would further negatively impact the labor market in the states where their production is located.
Because the bill would not fund the legally required pay increases for soldiers and civilian employees, the Pentagon would have to find the funds itself to make up for them. Those cuts could freeze recruiting bonuses, delay National Guard and Reserve training, limit flight hours and other training for active-duty troops, and impede the replacement of weapons and other equipment that has been pulled from Pentagon stockpiles and sent to Ukraine .
According to Austin, the interim budget “will place service members and their families under unnecessary stress, empower our adversaries, misallocate billions of dollars, harm our readiness and impede our ability to respond to emerging events”.
Noting that there have been 48 such budget resolutions in 14 of the last 15 fiscal years for a total of nearly 1,800 days, Austin said Congress must break the pattern of inaction because the US military cannot compete with China “ with their hands tied behind their backs every fiscal year“.
Johnson's bill is not expected to win support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, if it ever gets there. But in any case, Congress would have to pass some sort of temporary measure before Sept. 30 to avoid a federal government shutdown.