WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the subcommittee’s chairman, published an op-ed in the Washington Post this morning celebrating yesterday’s bipartisan passage out of the Senate Appropriations Committee of their defense spending bill for the next fiscal year, and laying out their vision for ensuring that our military is ready to stand toe-to-toe with our adversaries around the world.

 

The Trump administration has struggled to adequately fund the nation’s military, forcing the Defense Department to be funded by continuing resolution for the first time in history and then politicizing defense spending through a one-time funding influx as part of the reconciliation bill. Department of Defense leaders raised concerns with Senators Coons and McConnell that these decisions left critical priorities underfunded.

 

Yesterday’s appropriations bill was a major step in the right direction that provides troops a 3.8% pay raise and directs funding towards some of our military’s largest needs, from drone warfare to shipbuilding to expanding production capacity so we can swiftly replenish critical munitions needs. It also makes critical investments to stand with our allies and partners, including restoring funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

 

After the bill’s sizable 26-3 passage out of committee yesterday, Senators Coons and McConnell are urging their Senate colleagues to swiftly take up and pass the full bill.

 

From the Washington Post: Opinion: How to ensure America is ready for the next war

Investment in the U.S. military is lacking. Our bipartisan defense spending bill can help.

On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved our bill that would invest $852 billion in national defense over the next fiscal year by a decisive 26-3 vote. It would restore aid to Ukraine, boost assistance to our European and Pacific allies, and go beyond the president’s budget request (and the funding approved by our counterparts in the House) to modernize the U.S. military and defense industrial base to meet tomorrow’s threats. This bill is an urgently needed step in the right direction.

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This year, the Pentagon has had to meet payrolls, train forces, procure weapons and sustain operations with funds based on estimates made more than a year ago. That’s because, for the first time ever, Congress and the administration funded our military through a continuing resolution at spending levels set in 2023 instead of passing an updated budget. This was a tremendous missed opportunity to make serious, full-year investments in readiness, modernization and industrial capacity, and it has already had enormous consequences.

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Our effort this year won’t be enough to close the gaps with our adversaries’ sustained investments. Expanding shipyard and munitions capacity, deepening stocks of critical weapons, adopting new technologies, and recruiting and retaining service members and a skilled civilian workforce will all require increased funding. Meeting the urgent needs of a military adapting to renewed major-power competition will take growing annual commitments.

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Finally, we recognize the enormous dividends of investing in allies and partners. Our measure will help our friends — from the Baltic states to the Global South, the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East — build more capable forces, buy U.S.-made weapons and technologies, increase collective deterrence, and keep more U.S. service members out of harm’s way. Prevailing in any future fight will also draw on the lessons we continue to learn from Ukraine, a place the Army secretary rightly calls “the Silicon Valley of warfare.” Abandoning partners at the cutting edge of modern warfare would be strategic self-harm. That’s why our bill would restore funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative as well as programs like it that make America safer.