Lawmakers to Pentagon: Curtail protection spending ‘want lists’
Influential lawmakers from each events urged the Protection secretary in a letter Tuesday to curtail the division’s submission to Congress of “unfunded priorities lists” — annual requests for billions of {dollars} in navy spending above White Home funds proposals.
“The Division of Protection should present taxpayers that it’s a accountable steward of its funds,” wrote 4 senators and two representatives in a letter to Protection Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III that was obtained by CQ Roll Name. “That should start with eliminating the observe of sending Congress bloated want lists for extra funds on prime of its core funds submissions.”
The letter was signed by an unlikely coalition. The signatories have been Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Angus King, I-Maine, each of whom are members of the Armed Companies Committee; Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus; plus three fiscally conservative Republicans: Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Mike Braun of Indiana and Rep. Tom McClintock of California.
The bipartisan, bicameral composition of the letter’s signatories underscores how the protection funds could possibly be a significant difficulty in 2023 as a rising variety of Republicans, particularly within the Home, are deviating from the occasion’s conventional sample of all however exempting navy spending from fiscal austerity.
The half-dozen lawmakers requested Austin to cut back the usage of the unfunded priorities requests, beginning with subsequent month’s fiscal 2024 funds proposal, and to help laws that might get rid of statutory necessities that the Pentagon submit such supplementary requests yearly.
