Key Republicans are calling for more defense spending than is permitted under the debt-ceiling deal negotiated less than a month ago between House GOP leadership and the Biden administration.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)—in a statement accompanying the panel’s June 23 adoption of the $886.3 billion Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (FY24 NDAA)—said the proposed annual defense budget “does not adequately fund our defense needs, and I will work to increase the Department of Defense (DOD) top level as the bill progresses.”
Wicker is among bipartisan critics who note the debt-ceiling deal constrains defense spending to “a historic low” in its relationship with America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its 3.3-percent cap above last year’s NDAA is more than 2 percent below the current rate of inflation….