The White House’s plan to ask Congress to put $350 billion of its $1.5 trillion defense budget request into reconciliation is even causing heartburn among some Republicans. Putting it into reconciliation, as was done last year with the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which added $150 billion to the Pentagon budget through reconciliation, avoids the Senate filibuster problem so that it can be passed by simple majority votes. It also avoids Congressional oversight which has some members of Congress on edge.
In an April 30 House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing with Department of the Air Force leaders, Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA) said many of the key priorities in the budget request shouldn’t be left to the uncertainty of reconciliation and should be moved into the base budget or be included as part of a separate supplemental funding proposal, reported Air & Space Forces Magazine. DOD officials have said they plan to request supplemental appropriations to replenish depleted weapons stocks and repair systems damaged during the attack on Iran.
“Mandatory funding bypasses the annual appropriation process, which is how Congress exercises oversight responsibility,” Calvert said. “If these programs are as critical as the budget requests, and I believe they are, then they deserve all the full scrutiny and sustained attention that the appropriations process provides. I would urge the department to work with us to bring these programs into the discretionary budget where they belong.”
