As of mid-afternoon July 17, at least 666 prospective amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) have been filed by senators as the chamber prepares over the next two weeks to deliberate and adopt its version of the proposed $886.3 billion Fiscal Year 2024 United States’ defense budget. How many will be debated on…

The House has adopted its version of the proposed $886.3 billion Fiscal Year 2024 defense budget and dispatched it to the Senate, where many of the “culture war” amendments conservatives successfully attached to the must-pass annual appropriations package are likely to be rejected by the Democrat-led chamber. Do so at your own risk, House Freedom…

House conservatives are bundling the nation’s defense budget with “culture war” amendments they say are needed to reverse the Biden administration’s “woke” politicization of the military through “radical race theories” instituted in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. In the span of 10 hours on July 13, the Republican-led House repealed the Department of Defense’s…

House conservatives are bundling the nation’s defense budget with “culture war” amendments they say are needed to reverse the Biden administration’s “woke” politicization of the military through “radical race theories” instituted in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. In the span of 10 hours on July 13, the Republican-led House repealed the Department of Defense’s…

House conservatives are bundling the nation’s defense budget with “culture war” amendments they say are needed to reverse the Biden administration’s “woke” politicization of the military through “radical race theories” instituted in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. In the span of 10 hours on July 13, the Republican-led House repealed the Department of Defense’s…

For those steeped in the cement-dense rules of the legislative process who enjoy parliamentary intrigue, power plays, and shifting alliances all entangled in the nation’s must-pass defense budget, the United States House of Representatives is putting together a Republican-produced summer thriller. For everyone else, brace for a series of hotly contested floor clashes on dozens—perhaps,…

The House Armed Services Committee has adopted an amendment to the proposed United States’ defense budget calling on the Pentagon to present it with a plan spelling out how it would impose a naval blockade on China. Despite objections from Democrats and reservations voiced by several Republicans about publicly—and potentially, provocatively—discussing what amounts to an…

All things considered, adopting a 416-page, near-$1 trillion spending plan with more than 800 amendments over a 14-1/2 hour span—including more than 11 in deliberative, often heated, debate—is a good day’s work for a congressional committee. So, there was a bit of congratulatory relief as the clocked crawled toward 12:30 a.m. on June 22 when…

For more than 20 years after 9/11, United States special operations forces were primarily engaged in counterinsurgency campaigns and operations against terrorist organizations, mostly in the Middle East. But now, U.S. special operations forces (SOF) are engaged in a “great power competition” against China and Russia, a transition that is exposing deficiencies in force structure…

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told a Senate panel on May 11 that he has had no contact with the Peoples Republic of China’s (PRC) new defense minister despite repeated attempts to introduce himself. Austin told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee that he had several face-to-face sit-downs with former PRC Defense Minister Gen….