SASC

Defense Primer: U.S. Defense Appropriations Process

The following is the Nov. 17, 2022, Congressional Research Service Defense Primer: Defense Appropriations Process.

From the report

The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse in Article I, Section 9, which provides that “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” To fulfill this duty, Congress annually considers appropriations measures, which provide funding for numerous activities—such as national defense, education, and homeland...

https://news.usni.org/2022/11/18/defense-primer-u-s-defense-appropriations-process

Biden Signs Continuing Resolution Keeping Government Running Through Dec. 16

President Joe Biden on Friday signed a stopgap funding bill into law, preventing a government shutdown on the last day of the fiscal year.
The continuing resolution keeps the government funded through Dec. 16, giving lawmakers more time to pass Fiscal Year 2023 funding bills, including the annual defense appropriations legislation.

The House passed the measure on Friday after the Senate passed the CR on Thursday.

Both chambers are in recess until after Election Day, meaning both the FY 2023...

https://news.usni.org/2022/09/30/biden-signs-continuing-resolution-keeping-government-running-through-dec-16

Keeping Strategic Weapons Programs Funded Biggest Threat to U.S. Nuclear Triad, Says Panel

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Time on Oct. 2, 2019. US Air Force Photo

The biggest threat to modernizing the nuclear triad is to keep sustained modernization funding over multiple years and presidential administrations, a panel of national security experts told a key Senate panel on Tuesday.

The Air Force and the Navy are in the midst of replacing major decades old era strategic weapons programs. The Air Force...

https://news.usni.org/2022/09/21/keeping-strategic-weapons-programs-funded-biggest-threat-to-u-s-nuclear-triad-says-panel

Sailors Bid Farewell to USS Monterey as Navy Prepares to Decommission 3 More Cruisers This Month

Sailors assigned to the USS Monterey (CG-61) depart the ship for the final time during its decommissioning ceremony Sept. 16 in Norfolk, Va. US Navy Photo

The Navy decommissioned the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG-61) in a ceremony on Friday as the service continues to take Ticonderoga-class cruisers out of inventory.
Monterey, built at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine, was commissioned on June 16, 1990, in Mayport, Fla., The ship served 32 years, according to a...

https://news.usni.org/2022/09/19/sailors-bid-farewell-to-uss-monterey-as-navy-prepares-to-decommission-3-more-cruisers-this-month

CENTCOM CO: No U.S. Over-the-Horizon Strikes in Afghanistan Since Withdrawal

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie commander, U.S. Central Command, provides testimony at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on ending the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. on Sept. 29, 2021. DoD Photo

The U.S. is gathering over-the-horizon intelligence on terrorist activities in Afghanistan but hasn’t made a strike against ISIS-K and al Qaeda, the head of U.S. Central Command told a Senate panel said.

Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said Tuesday in...

https://news.usni.org/2022/03/15/centcom-co-no-u-s-over-the-horizon-strikes-in-afghanistan-since-withdrawal

Hill Closer to an FY 22 Budget Deal as Navy Warns Against More CRs; White House Sets Pentagon FY 23 Topline at More than $770B

NASA Photo

SAN DIEGO, CALIF., – Congressional appropriators are closer to cementing a deal that would finalize the belated Fiscal Year 2022 defense budget, three legislative sources confirmed to USNI News on Wednesday.

The sources said the deal for the Department of Defense FY 2022 appropriations bill would be in line with the $768 billion FY 2022 authorization bill signed by President Joe Biden in late December. The FY 2022 spending bill would be about $25 to 30 billion more than the initial...

https://news.usni.org/2022/02/16/hill-closer-to-a-fy-22-budget-deal-as-navy-warns-against-more-crs-white-house-sets-pentagon-fy-23-topline-at-more-than-770b

Duckworth Calls for Closer Ties to Taiwan, More U.S. Vaccine Diplomacy

Soldiers from a M110A2 self-propelled artillery squad from the Republic of China (Taiwan) Army. CNA Photo

The Taiwan Strait is a key route of trade and is as important as the Malacca Strait, between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, for the free flow of commerce in the Indo-Pacific, a key member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said on Tuesday.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, (D-Ill.) said Indo-Pacific nations view the U.S. Navy’s strait transits through the Taiwan Strait and...

https://news.usni.org/2021/08/10/duckworth-calls-for-closer-ties-to-taiwan-more-u-s-vaccine-diplomacy

SASC’s FY 22 Defense Bill Boosts DoD Topline by $25B; Adds 2nd Destroyer, More Navy F-35Cs

USS Daniel Inouye (DDG-118) at Bath Iron Works

THE PENTAGON – The Senate Armed Services Committee Fiscal Year 2022 authorization bill adds an additional destroyer, a Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transport and five more F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters for the Navy, according to a summary of the markup issued on Thursday by the SASC.

The additions are part of a $740.3 billion authorization bill that’s $25 billion more than the Pentagon’s initial budget request from late May.

The bill...

https://news.usni.org/2021/07/22/sascs-fy-22-defense-bill-boosts-dod-topline-by-25b-adds-2nd-destroyer-more-navy-f-35cs

Lawmakers Survey: 94% of Sailors Say ‘Damaging Operational Failures’ Related to Navy Culture, Leadership Problems

USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) departs Huntington Ingalls Industries – Ingalls Shipbuilding’s Pascagoula shipyard to conduct comprehensive at-sea testing on Feb. 3, 2020. US Navy Photo

The Navy’s surface warfare community is weighed with a culture that values administrative chores over training to fight, ship commanders that are micromanaged and an aversion to risk, according to a new survey overseen by a retired Navy admiral and Marine general at the behest of a group of Republican lawmakers. That...

https://news.usni.org/2021/07/12/lawmakers-survey-94-of-sailors-say-damaging-operational-failures-related-to-navy-culture-leadership-problems

MDA, NORTHCOM Heads Warn Funding Lapses Could Leave Missile Defense Gaps  

A target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii during Flight Test Standard Missile-45. The USS JOHN FINN (DDG-113) detected and tracked the target missile with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar using the Aegis Baseline 9.C2 weapon system. Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the ship launched an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile which intercepted the target. Missile Defense Agency photo

The head of the Missile Defense Agency warned the House that a continuing...

https://news.usni.org/2021/06/16/mda-northcom-heads-warn-funding-lapses-could-leave-missile-defense-gaps

+ More