Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is speaking out against a House Republican plan that would fund the federal government at its current spending levels through March.
“If passed, a six-month [continuing resolution] would represent the second year in a row, and the seventh time in the past 15 years, where the department is delayed in moving forward with critical priorities until midway through the budget year,” Austin wrote in a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.). “These actions subject service members and their families to unnecessary stress, empower our adversaries, misalign billions of dollars, damage our readiness, and impede our ability to react to emergent events.”
Austin’s letter included a detailed summary on what spending priorities would be delayed, including pay raises and housing upgrades.
What’s Happening
Congress has not completed work on any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the new fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, threatening a government shutdown if they can’t agree on a continuing resolution to keep government spending at its current levels.
The House is expected to vote in the coming days on a resolution kicking the appropriations issue to March. It’s unclear if the plan can pass the House. Senate Democrats oppose it, and the White House has said President Biden would veto it.
Cole and other top appropriators prefer a stopgap bill that would wrap up the new fiscal year’s appropriations before January, as Politico reported.
DOD photo by Chad J. McNeeley
