HASC advances $150 billion defense boost bill, despite Dem objections

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Armed Services Committee voted 35-21 on Tuesday to advance a $150 billion defense spending plan as part of the forthcoming reconciliation bill.

The committee’s markup of the legislation included voting down a slew of Democrat-proposed amendments aimed at placing limits on the spending. These included one from Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a longtime anti-nuclear advocate, who proposed an amendment that would withhold the $1.5 billion line item for Sentinel risk reduction until Milestone B, or the engineering manufacturing and design phase, is approved.

Another amendment by Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.) would have allocated funding from the nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) toward childcare assistance for servicemembers. Republicans struck the amendment down, and Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) cited Gen. Anthony Cotton, Commander of the Strategic Command, as saying in a hearing how important he felt SLCM-N was.

The $150 billion defense bill includes $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system, $33.7 billion for shipbuilding and increases for a wide swatch of defense priorities. Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider dual-capable stealth bomber would also receive $4.5 billion.

Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the Armed Service Committee’s ranking member, offered an amendment to place a hold on 75% of the funds and voted against the bill. Smith said that the defense spending boost would be paid for with “devastating cuts” to social programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“There’s no question that the Department of Defense has requirements and that we as a country face threats and challenges from around the world,” Smith said in a statement following the vote.

“We clearly need to meet those threats and challenges, and we need to do so in ways that promote efficiency and effectiveness and allow for greater innovation,” Smith said. “Gifting the Pentagon an additional $150 billion with little to no guard rails, on top of the nearly $900 billion defense budget already passed and without any budget plan from the President for Fiscal Year 2026 or even execution instructions for FY25, defies basic common sense.”

Ultimately, five Armed Service Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), Don Davis (D-N.C.), George Whitesides (D-Calif.) and Eugene Vindman (D-Va.), joined with all Republicans to pass the measure.

The committee’s markup will now go to the House Budget Committee, which will compile it with the other committee’s portions of the legislation to form the full reconciliation bill. When the Senate then takes up the measure, the Senate Armed Services Committee may conduct its own markup prior to the upper chamber’s consideration of the legislation.

Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who told reporters he wanted $175 billion for defense earlier this year, told the Exchange Monitor at the Capitol Tuesday that the $150 billion line item was “a very good piece of the puzzle, and on balance I’m happy with it.”

Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily contributed to this article.