House Armed Services chair wants China spending bill, less Ukraine aid

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee wants to pass a supplemental spending bill this year to address threats from China, he told reporters Tuesday, while also suggesting the next Ukraine aid package would come in “at a much smaller level” than before.

The proposition from Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., comes amid a flurry of proposals from defense hawks on Capitol Hill to bypass the $886 billion military spending top line laid out in the debt ceiling deal that President Joe Biden signed into law over the weekend. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., appeared to throw cold water on additional defense spending bills on Monday.

Rogers said once Congress completes work on the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act and defense appropriations bill, “then it’s time for us to look and see if we actually address China. If we did, fine. If we didn’t, we’ll go ahead and drop more funding. It’s all about China for me.”

The House was initially slated to mark up the FY24 defense authorization bill in May, but Republican leaders asked Rogers to postpone it amid the debt ceiling negotiations . That markup is now scheduled for later this month.

For his part, McCarthy resisted efforts to circumvent military spending caps in the debt ceiling bill, which locks in Biden’s proposed defense budget — a 3.3% increase over this fiscal year.

“What we really need to do, we need to get the efficiencies in the Pentagon,” McCarthy said, according to CNN . “Think about it, $886 billion. You don’t think there’s waste? They failed the last five audits. I consider myself a hawk, but I don’t want to waste money. So I think we’ve got to find efficiencies.”

In response, Rogers said McCarthy is “right.”

“It is premature to be talking about a supplemental right now, but we will need a supplemental later this year — for China specifically,” Rogers said.

Rogers, who previously hammered the Biden administration for refusing to deliver Ukraine certain weapons like long-range missiles , also struck a less bullish note on aid to the country currently fighting a Russian invasion.

“Based on how effective the counteroffensive is this summer, and if there is a ceasefire or some resolution by the end of September, I’ll probably have to revisit Ukraine then, at a much smaller level than anything we’ve done before,” Rogers told Defense News.

The Pentagon did not include additional Ukraine aid in its FY24 budget request , noting that it would request future aid packages through supplemental spending that Congress would have to approve. The Defense Department expects to run out of Ukraine aid funds by the end of the fiscal year in September.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., last week floated the idea of adding additional Pentagon spending in the next Ukraine aid supplemental. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., endorsed additional supplemental spending packages Thursday on the Senate floor in order to ease concerns over the debt ceiling deal from defense hawks, primarily Republicans who argued the defense top line increase falls below the rate of inflation.

Further complicating matters, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has testified that the Pentagon is preparing a package to transfer weapons to Taiwan , but that he would require congressional appropriations to backfill U.S. military stockpiles.

However, the appetite for additional defense supplemental spending in the House — be that to counter China or to support Ukraine or Taiwan — remains unclear.

“Unless there is a willingness to increase domestic spending at the same time, we have a law that is a guide,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday.

Still, DeLauro did not rule out additional Ukraine aid spending, noting she funded four supplementals for Kyiv last year as the top appropriator.

“I will wait to hear from [the Defense Department] about what we need for Ukraine,” DeLauro told Defense News.

Total defense spending for FY23 — which ends Sept. 30 — will come to $893 billion after accounting for $35.4 billion in emergency Ukraine aid. Total FY22 defense spending came to $794 billion after Congress allocated an additional $26 billion in Ukraine aid.

Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, has also supported Ukraine aid but voiced concern about whether the House could pass it given opposition from a vocal minority of Republican lawmakers .

“It’s a chaos caucus, so I don’t know if they’ll be able to bring it to the floor,” McCollum told Defense News.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

华盛顿——众议院军事委员会主席周二告诉记者，他希望今年通过一项补充支出法案，以应对来自中国的威胁，同时他还暗示，下一轮对乌克兰的援助规模将比以往“小得多”。

阿拉巴马州共和党众议员迈克·罗杰斯提出的这项提案，正值国会山的鹰派人士纷纷提出一系列提案，试图绕过拜登总统周末签署生效的债务上限协议中规定的8860亿美元军费开支上限之际。但众议院议长、加利福尼亚州共和党众议员凯文·麦卡锡周一似乎给额外的国防开支法案泼了一盆冷水。

罗杰斯表示，一旦国会完成2024财年国防授权法案和国防拨款法案的审议，“那么我们就该看看是否真正解决了中国问题。如果解决了，那就很好。如果没有，我们将继续削减更多资金。对我来说，一切都与中国有关。”

众议院原定于5月审议2024财年国防授权法案，但共和党领导人要求罗杰斯在债务上限谈判期间推迟审议。目前，审议工作已安排在本月晚些时候进行。

麦卡锡则抵制了规避债务上限法案中军事开支上限的努力，该法案锁定了拜登提出的国防预算——比本财年增长 3.3%。

据CNN报道，麦卡锡表示：“我们真正需要做的，是提高五角大楼的效率。想想看，8860亿美元。你不认为其中没有浪费吗？他们最近五次审计都失败了。我自认为是个鹰派，但我不想浪费钱。所以我认为我们必须提高效率。”

对此，罗杰斯表示麦卡锡的说法“是正确的”。

罗杰斯说：“现在谈论补充关税还为时过早，但今年晚些时候我们需要一份补充关税——特别是针对中国的。”

罗杰斯此前曾猛烈抨击拜登政府拒绝向乌克兰提供远程导弹等某些武器，如今他对援助这个目前正与俄罗斯入侵作斗争的国家也表达了不太乐观的态度。

罗杰斯告诉《防务新闻》：“根据今年夏天反攻的成效，以及9月底能否实现停火或达成某种解决方案，我届时可能不得不再次访问乌克兰，但规模会比我们以前所做的任何事情都小得多。”

五角大楼在其2024财年预算申请中并未列入额外的乌克兰援助，并指出未来将通过补充支出申请援助，但这些补充支出需经国会批准。国防部预计，到9月底本财年结束时，乌克兰援助资金将耗尽。

上周，参议院军事委员会主席杰克·里德（Jack Reed）提出在下一份乌克兰援助补充法案中增加五角大楼的开支。为了缓解国防鹰派（主要是共和党人）对债务上限协议的担忧，多数党领袖查克·舒默（Chuck Schumer）周四在参议院表示支持增加补充支出方案。这些鹰派认为，国防预算的增幅低于通货膨胀率。

更复杂的是，国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀作证说，五角大楼正在准备向台湾转移武器，但他需要国会拨款来补充美国军火库。

然而，众议院对增加国防补充支出的意愿——无论是为了对抗中国，还是为了支持乌克兰或台湾——仍然不明朗。

“除非同时增加国内支出，否则我们现有的法律就只能起到指导作用，”康涅狄格州众议员、拨款委员会首席民主党人罗莎·德劳罗周二告诉记者。

不过，德劳罗并未排除增加对乌克兰援助支出的可能性，她指出，作为最高拨款人，她去年为基辅提供了四笔补充援助。

“我会等待国防部告诉我们对乌克兰需要什么，”德劳罗告诉《防务新闻》。

2023财年（截至9月30日）的国防总支出将达到8930亿美元，其中包括354亿美元的乌克兰紧急援助。2022财年的国防总支出为7940亿美元，此前国会已额外拨款260亿美元用于乌克兰援助。

明尼苏达州众议员贝蒂·麦科勒姆是拨款委员会国防小组的首席民主党议员，她也支持对乌克兰的援助，但她对众议院能否通过这项援助表示担忧，因为有一小部分共和党议员强烈反对。

“这是一个混乱的党团会议，所以我不知道他们是否能够把它提交到全体会议上讨论，”麦科勒姆告诉《防务新闻》。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。