Defense spending bill has some Ukraine aid, multiyear munitions buys

The House and Senate on Thursday released the compromise text of their fiscal 2024 defense spending bill, nearly halfway through the fiscal year that began in October.

Congress is expected to begin votes on the $825 billion defense spending bill on Friday; Pentagon funding via a stopgap measure is slated to expire at the end of that same day. The bipartisan bill adheres to the spending caps imposed by last year’s debt ceiling deal . It funds the procurement of eight battle ships and dozens of new aircraft, provides a small amount of Ukraine military aid and offers multiyear procurement for six critical munitions.

“As chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, I have prioritized five areas that are reflected in this act: countering China and staying ahead of our adversaries; prioritizing innovation of military superiority, achieving a more efficient and effective Pentagon; enhancing the military’s role in countering efforts and supporting our servicemembers and their families,” Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., said in a statement.

The bill includes $33.5 billion to build eight ships and allocates funds for 86 F-35 and 24 F-15 EX fighter jets as well as 15 KC-46A tankers. There’s also a combined $2.1 billion for the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic weapons system.

The bill retains $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the Pentagon to place contracts for equipment to send Kyiv. House Republican leaders had initially removed the $300 million in Ukraine aid amid opposition from the right flank of their caucus when they narrowly passed their version of the defense spending bill 218-210 in September.

But even with the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds back in the bill, the $300 million is far less than the $60 billion in security and economic support for Kyiv provided in the Senate’s foreign aid bill. The Senate passed the aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan 70-29 in February but House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has so far refused to put it on the floor amid opposition from former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Separately, the compromise defense spending bill includes funding for multiyear contracts to procure six critical munitions: the Naval Strike Missile, the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, the PATRIOT Advanced Capability-3, the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile.

Multiyear contracts are usually reserved for big-ticket purchases like ships and aircraft, but the Pentagon hopes using them for munitions will ensure demand stability to encourage defense contractors to ramp up production capacity. Defense appropriators granted the Pentagon’s request to use multiyear contracts for all but one munition: the Standard Missile-6. The defense-industrial base has struggled to quickly replenish the billions of dollars worth of munitions drawn down from U.S. stockpiles for Ukraine .

The FY24 defense policy bill, which Congress passed in December , authorizes multiyear contracts for six additional munitions outside the Pentagon’s request. But the FY24 defense spending bill does not fund those additional multiyear contracts.

War games hosted by the House China Committee in April found the U.S. would rapidly run out of munitions — including the SM-6, Naval Strike Missile and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile — in a war with Beijing in the Pacific. That committee endorsed multiyear munitions buys as part of a series of 10 bipartisan recommendations on Taiwan it drafted in May.

Additionally, the bill provides an $800 million boost to the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit , for a total budget of $983 million in FY24. It also provides $200 million for Replicator , the Pentagon’s effort to buy and field thousands of drones by next August.

Finally, the legislation cuts funding for the Defense Department civilian workforce by $1 billion.

The compromise bill eliminates many of the amendments Republicans introduced when they passed their version of the bill in September. That includes an amendment from Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga., that would have reduced Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s salary to $1 .

The bill also drops a priority a proposal championed by Calvert that would have moved Mexico from U.S. Northern Command to Southern Command . Calvert argued last year this would “prioritize combatting the trafficking of fentanyl by Mexican drug cartels.”

Although Mexico will remain in Northern Command, the bill includes a $50 million increase to counter illicit fentanyl and synthetic opioids.

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.

周四，众议院和参议院公布了 2024 财年国防开支法案的妥协文本，此时距离 10 月份开始的本财年已过去近一半。

预计国会将于周五开始对8250亿美元的国防开支法案进行投票；五角大楼通过临时拨款法案获得的资金将于当日到期。这项两党共同提出的法案遵守了去年债务上限协议规定的支出上限。法案拨款用于采购八艘战舰和数十架新型飞机，提供少量对乌克兰的军事援助，并为六种关键弹药提供多年采购计划。

“作为众议院拨款委员会国防小组委员会主席，我优先考虑了五个领域，这些领域也体现在这项法案中：对抗中国并保持领先于我们的对手；优先考虑军事优势的创新，实现更高效、更有效的五角大楼；加强军队在反制行动中的作用；以及支持我们的军人和他们的家人，”加州共和党众议员肯·卡尔弗特在一份声明中说。

该法案包括拨款335亿美元用于建造8艘舰艇，并拨款购买86架F-35和24架F-15EX战斗机以及15架KC-46A加油机。此外，还拨款21亿美元用于陆军的远程高超音速武器系统和海军的常规快速打击高超音速武器系统。

该法案保留了3亿美元的乌克兰安全援助计划拨款，该计划允许五角大楼签订合同，采购装备运往基辅。众议院共和党领导人最初在9月份以218票赞成、210票反对的微弱优势通过其版本的国防开支法案时，由于党内右翼的反对，删除了这3亿美元的乌克兰援助资金。

即使将乌克兰安全援助计划的资金重新纳入法案，这3亿美元也远低于参议院对外援助法案中为基辅提供的600亿美元安全和经济支持。参议院于2月份以70票赞成、29票反对通过了对乌克兰、以色列和台湾的援助法案，但由于共和党总统候选人、前总统唐纳德·特朗普的反对，众议院议长、路易斯安那州共和党人迈克·约翰逊至今仍拒绝将其提交众议院表决。

此外，妥协后的国防开支法案还包括为采购六种关键弹药的多年期合同提供资金：海军打击导弹、制导多管火箭系统、爱国者先进能力-3、远程反舰导弹、联合空对地防区外导弹和先进中程空对空导弹。

多年期合同通常用于舰船和飞机等大宗采购，但五角大楼希望将其用于弹药采购，以确保需求稳定，从而鼓励国防承包商提高产能。国防拨款委员会批准了五角大楼的请求，允许除一种弹药——标准-6导弹——之外的所有弹药都采用多年期合同。由于乌克兰战争，美国国防工业基础一直难以迅速补充从其库存中抽取的价值数十亿美元的弹药。

国会去年12月通过的2024财年国防政策法案授权签订六项超出五角大楼要求的额外弹药多年期合同。但2024财年国防开支法案并未为这些额外的多年期合同提供资金。

今年4月，美国众议院中国委员会主持的战争演习发现，如果美国在太平洋与北京发生战争，其弹药——包括SM-6海军打击导弹和远程反舰导弹——将很快耗尽。该委员会在5月起草的十项关于台湾问题的两党建议中，支持了多年期的弹药采购计划。

此外，该法案还为五角大楼的国防创新部门增加了 8 亿美元的预算，使其 2024 财年的总预算达到 9.83 亿美元。该法案还为“复制者”计划拨款 2 亿美元，该计划旨在五角大楼于明年 8 月前采购并部署数千架无人机。

最后，该法案削减了国防部文职人员10亿美元的经费。

这项妥协法案删除了共和党人在9月份通过其版本法案时提出的许多修正案。其中包括佐治亚州共和党众议员玛乔丽·泰勒-格林提出的修正案，该修正案原本会将国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀的薪水降至1美元。

该法案还取消了卡尔弗特力推的一项优先事项提案，该提案原本计划将墨西哥从美国北方司令部移至南方司令部。卡尔弗特去年辩称，此举将“优先打击墨西哥贩毒集团贩运芬太尼”。

尽管墨西哥仍将留在北方司令部，但该法案包括增加 5000 万美元用于打击非法芬太尼和合成阿片类药物。

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。