Defense Secretary Mark Esper is so worried about the consequences of a long-term continuing resolution that when he went to Capitol Hill recently to brief lawmakers on the Abu Bakr al–Baghdadi raid, “he spent much of his time pleading for a 2020 appropriations bill,” defense policy analyst Mackenzie Eaglen wrote in a Defense One column.
Eaglen, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote that members of Congress know continuing resolutions are bad spending policy but that they don’t always understand the real-world implications of essentially freezing government spending.
“If the Pentagon really wants to get its appropriations bill past the border wall impasse and impeachment overhang, lawmakers need to see compelling new information from the Defense Department that shows how doing their job well helps everyone and saves money,” she wrote.
ADC photo of Mackenzie Eaglen, left, by Will Noonan