Follow us on social

Reps. Lee, Pocan introduce bill that would trim defense budget by $100 billion

Reps. Lee, Pocan introduce bill that would trim defense budget by $100 billion

People over Pentagon Act would represent largest single-year cut in DoD history

North America

Reps Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) today re-introduced the People over Pentagon Act, a bill that, if approved, would result in the largest single-year DoD budget cut – by $100 billion – in recent memory.

The bill, which was first introduced last June with 22 Democratic co-sponsors, has never been voted on. The two representatives have also offered a number of other bills aimed at trimming defense spending in recent years.  

The Act acknowledges that “many of the most urgent threats to the national security of the United States are not military in nature;” and therefore “the budget of the Department of Defense should be reduced and the associated savings should be reallocated.” The bill also explicitly protects certain provisions in the defense budget, such as the Defense Health Program and military personnel accounts, from cuts, maintaining spending in these programs at the same levels as last fiscal year. 

Instead, the bill will target other areas of massive spending, including funds that go to big arms-manufacturing companies; the current FY 2023 budget alone provides approximately $452 billion to contractors. If passed, the Act could create approximately $1.3 trillion in savings over the next decade, according to 2022 estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. 

“By cutting $100 billion from the defense budget, this bill prioritizes urgent needs like healthcare, education, and infrastructure over padding the pockets of defense contractors,” Pocan said in a statement. “More defense spending does not guarantee safety, but it does guarantee that the military-industrial complex will continue to get richer. We can no longer afford to put these corporate interests over the needs of the American people. It's time to invest in our communities and make meaningful change that reflects our nation’s priorities."

The Pentagon budget continues to grow despite its inability to pass an audit, which it failed for a fifth consecutive time last year. The introduction of this bill comes two weeks after Politico reported that President Joe Biden was preparing to ask Congress for the largest Pentagon budget ever in Fiscal Year 2024. Last December, Congress appropriated $858 billion in national defense funding—$817 billion of which was for the Pentagon – almost $50 billion more than the Biden administration had initially requested and an all-time high in defense spending. The administration’s request for next year  is set to be released on March 9. 

The Act’s co-sponsors call for prioritizing domestic needs over funding weapons systems. “Year after year, this country pours billions into our already-astronomical defense budget without stopping to question whether the additional funding is actually making us safer,” said Lee in a press release. “We know that a large portion of these taxpayer dollars are used to pad the pockets of the military industrial complex, fund outdated technology, or are simply mismanaged.” The Congresswoman further argues that appropriating these funds elsewhere “could do so much good: it could power every household in the US with solar energy; hire one million elementary school teachers amid a worsening teacher shortage; provide free tuition for 2 out of 3 public college students; or cover medical care for 7 million veterans.”


Barbara Lee (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald via shutterstock.com) and Mark Pocan (Photo: Charles Edward Miller)|Photo: Charles Edward Miller|Barbara Lee (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald via shutterstock.com) and Mark Pocan (Photo: Charles Edward Miller)
North America
POGO The Bunker
Top image credit: Project on Government Oversight

Yes to 'Department of War' name change

Military Industrial Complex

The Bunker appears originally at the Project on Government Oversight and is republished here with permission.

keep readingShow less
Bidenites make soft landing in heart of lucrative war industry
Top photo credit: Brett McGurk (Kuhlmann /MSC/Wikimedia Commons) and Lloyd Austin ((DoD Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jack Sanders).

Bidenites make soft landing in heart of lucrative war industry

Military Industrial Complex

In 2021, Ret. Gen. Lloyd Austin declared he had “no intent to be a lobbyist.” On June 3, less than six months after leaving office, former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense announced that he would be launching a new strategic advisory firm called “Clarion Strategies.” Some Senators allege this is simply lobbying by another name.

A pitch deck obtained by Politico noted that Clarion Strategies’ name is a “nod to its aim to equip clients with the clarity they need to navigate geopolitical upheaval driven by the war in Ukraine, advancements in defense technology like AI and unmanned systems, global trade shifts and emerging alliances among U.S. adversaries like Russia, China, North Korea and China.” In other words, the new firm is very much hoping to court clients from the defense industry.

keep readingShow less
Trump and Keith Kellogg
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump and Keith Kellogg (now Trump's Ukraine envoy) in 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Trump's silence on loss of Ukraine lithium territory speaks volumes

Europe

Last week, Russian military forces seized a valuable lithium field in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the latest success of Moscow’s grinding summer offensive.

The lithium deposit in question is considered rather small by industry analysts, but is said to be a desirable prize nonetheless due to the concentration and high-quality of its ore. In other words, it is just the kind of asset that the Trump administration seemed eager to exploit when it signed its much heralded minerals agreement with Ukraine earlier this year.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.