WASHINGTON, DC. – A reconciliation bill that would provide $150 billion in extra funding to defense passed 35-21 in the House Armed Services Committee, despite opposition from Democrats on programs like Sentinel.
Sentinel, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) currently being built by Northrop Grumman, received $1.5 billion in “risk reduction” funding in the bill released over the weekend. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a longtime anti-nuclear advocate, proposed an amendment that would withhold the $1.5 billion line item for Sentinel risk reduction until Milestone B is approved.
Milestone B approval means the program can enter the engineering, manufacturing and development phase. While the Sentinel program received Milestone B approval in 2020, the approval was rescinded when the Air Force notified Congress last year that the program breached Nunn-McCurdy cost guidelines, or went over 25% over budget.
Garamendi called Sentinel “extraordinarily expensive,” adding “I’m not exactly sure what risk reduction means.”
“By the way, where did you find $150 billion?” Garamendi said. “You found it in cuts to Medicaid.”
While chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) disagreed with Garamendi and opposed the amendment, fellow Democrats Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) agreed with Garamendi that cost cuts would have to come from somewhere and that maybe it’s not necessary to have “this missile at this cost.”
Garamendi’s amendment was killed 25-30.
Sentinel will eventually replace the Boeing-made Minuteman III as the Air Force’s silo-based, nuclear-armed ICBM sometime in the 2030s while the Minuteman III is still commissioned. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in October certified a “war reserve” quality plutonium pit for the W87-1 warhead, the second of two warheads that would tip the Sentinel missile sometime next decade.
The bill now advances to the House Committee on Budget. While a time is not set, Rogers said in a statement after the markup that he looks forward to “passing it quickly.”