Republican budget plan will ‘undermine’ US security, warns Biden admin

WASHINGTON ― The Biden administration is portraying plans from Republicans to gut the federal budget as jeopardizing national security ― the latest salvo in the partisan war over spending levels.

State Department and Pentagon officials said in letters to Capitol Hill on Monday that cuts floated by Republicans would harm efforts to deter and compete with China and “effectively zero out” aid to Ukraine .

House Republicans have reportedly pledged to cut federal spending for fiscal 2024 back to their fiscal 2022 levels as part of a January deal to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., as speaker. However, Republicans have also since come out against cuts to defense, which makes them less likely but leaves nondefense programs vulnerable.

The House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, sent a letter in January to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the leaders of all other federal agencies seeking more details on the impact of fiscal cuts by House Republicans. On Monday, she posted the replies.

Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord , in his March 17 letter, stuck up for the nondefense side, saying that even if the department was exempt from cuts, those cuts would be “just as harmful.” The federal government’s response to the Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine shows the value of integrating all forms of assistance, he added.

“No one agency could achieve the effects we are producing as a team, and deep cuts to any one of the agencies would undermine the effort as a whole,” McCord’s letter read.

The State Department ― which requested billions of dollars for Indo-Pacific missions and to counter Chinese influence though security, infrastructure and economic support to U.S. allies and partners around the globe ― said those efforts would be hurt.

A rollback to FY22 levels would include a $2 billion cut to the State Department’s security sector assistance budget, according to the seven-page letter from Naz Durakoğlu and Jodi Herman, the respective legislative affairs chiefs for the department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. It’s a category that includes foreign military financing for partner nations to buy American-made weaponry.

“Such assistance is critical to enhancing military-to-military interoperability, training, and cooperation, as well as fighting corruption, and money-laundering,” the March 17 letter read, adding that such a cut would also be like “opening the door for our competitors.”

To the Pentagon, a rollback to FY22 levels would mean a $100 billion — or nearly 12% — budget cut, compared to Biden’s FY24 budget request of $842 billion, McCord said in his three-page letter to DeLauro.

“The Department of Defense is concerned about both the magnitude and potential method of implementing such reductions, which would have harmful and potentially devastating effects on our people, our mission and our national interests,” McCord wrote.

Such cuts, he said, would upend congressionally supported efforts to stabilize the defense-industrial base and also stymie modernization efforts. Beyond that, they would mean less money for the Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative and proposed munitions plus-ups at the center of the FY24 request ― both aimed at deterring China in the region.

The U.S. Navy would hypothetically take a $10 billion cut, likely eliminating a Virginia-class submarine and DDG-51 destroyer , and also endanger cost-saving multiyear procurement contracts, the letter read.

A notional 40% cut to the nuclear triad modernization would hurt B-21 bomber production plans and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program.

For planned missile defense upgrades, a rollback means 50% less for space-based missile warning and ground-based midcourse missile defense “at a time when our adversaries are modernizing their offensive capabilities,” the letter read.

“Such ill-advised politics would also have global ramifications,” McCord wrote. “At a time when our allies in NATO and the Indo-Pacific region are increasing their security spending to the levels we have been advocating, a move backward on our part would send the wrong message both to allies and adversaries.”

Furthermore, the Coast Guard would have to cease efforts to buy the offshore patrol cutter and the polar security cutter, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s letter.

That in turn would “create an operational gap and further delay of the U.S. presence in the polar regions and reduce the ability detect, deter, prevent, and disrupt terrorist attacks and other criminal acts in the U.S. maritime domain as well as our National Defense Strategy,” the letter read.

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

华盛顿——拜登政府将共和党削减联邦预算的计划描绘成危害国家安全——这是围绕支出水平的党派战争中的最新一轮交锋。

国务院和五角大楼官员周一在致国会山的信中表示，共和党人提出的削减措施将损害遏制和与中国竞争的努力，并“实际上取消”对乌克兰的援助。

据报道，众议院共和党人已承诺将2024财年的联邦支出削减至2022财年的水平，这是他们1月份达成的一项协议的一部分，该协议旨在选举加州共和党众议员凯文·麦卡锡担任议长。然而，共和党人此后也反对削减国防开支，这使得削减国防开支的可能性降低，但也使非国防项目面临风险。

众议院拨款委员会首席民主党议员、康涅狄格州众议员罗莎·德劳罗 (Rosa DeLauro) 于今年1月致信国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀 (Lloyd Austin) 及其他所有联邦机构的负责人，要求提供众议院共和党人削减财政预算的具体影响细节。周一，她公布了各机构的回复。

五角大楼主计长迈克·麦科德在3月17日的信中力挺非国防部门，称即便国防部不受预算削减的影响，这些削减也“同样有害”。他还补充说，联邦政府对俄罗斯持续入侵乌克兰的回应表明了整合各种援助形式的重要性。

麦考德在信中写道：“任何一个机构都无法取得我们作为一个团队所取得的成果，大幅削减任何一个机构的预算都会破坏整个团队的努力。”

美国国务院要求拨款数十亿美元用于印太地区的军事行动，并通过向全球美国盟友和伙伴提供安全、基础设施和经济支持来对抗中国的影响力。国务院表示，这些努力将受到损害。

根据国务院立法事务主管纳兹·杜拉科卢和美国国际开发署立法事务主管乔迪·赫尔曼联名签署的七页信函，将预算削减至2022财年水平将包括削减国务院安全部门援助预算20亿美元。该援助项目涵盖了为伙伴国家购买美国制造武器提供的对外军事融资。

3 月 17 日的信中写道：“此类援助对于加强军事互操作性、训练与合作，以及打击腐败和洗钱至关重要。”信中还补充说，削减此类援助也如同“为我们的竞争对手敞开大门”。

麦考德在给德劳罗的三页信中表示，对五角大楼而言，如果将预算削减至 2022 财年的水平，则意味着 1000 亿美元的预算削减，即近 12%，而拜登提出的 2024 财年预算请求为 8420 亿美元。

麦考德写道：“国防部对这种削减的规模和潜在实施方式都感到担忧，这将对我们的人员、我们的使命和我们的国家利益造成有害且可能具有毁灭性的影响。”

他表示，此类削减将颠覆国会支持的稳定国防工业基础的努力，并阻碍现代化进程。此外，这意味着印太威慑倡议和2024财年预算申请的核心——旨在威慑中国在该地区影响力的弹药扩充计划——的资金将会减少。

信中写道，美国海军可能会因此削减 100 亿美元的预算，这很可能导致一艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇和一艘 DDG-51 驱逐舰的建造计划被取消，同时也可能危及那些能够节省成本的多年采购合同。

假设核三位一体现代化计划削减 40%，将会损害 B-21 轰炸机的生产计划和“哨兵”洲际弹道导弹计划。

信中写道，对于计划中的导弹防御升级而言，撤回升级意味着天基导弹预警和陆基中段导弹防御能力将减少 50%，而“与此同时，我们的对手正在对其进攻能力进行现代化改造”。

麦考德写道：“这种不明智的政治举措也会产生全球性的影响。在我们北约和印太地区的盟友将安全开支增加到我们一直倡导的水平之际，如果我们倒退，将会向盟友和对手发出错误的信号。”

此外，根据国土安全部的信函，海岸警卫队将不得不停止购买近海巡逻舰和极地安全舰的努力。

信中写道，这反过来会“造成行动上的缺口，进一步延缓美国在极地地区的存在，并降低美国在海上领域以及国家防御战略中侦测、阻止、预防和干扰恐怖袭击和其他犯罪行为的能力”。

乔·古尔德是《防务新闻》的资深五角大楼记者，负责报道国家安全政策、政治和国防工业的交汇点。他此前曾担任国会记者。