Prominent Republicans back scrapping McCarthy-Biden debt-ceiling agreement for defense budget boost.

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.

A more robust defense budget is “the best way to deter conflict around the globe,” Wicker said, noting he agrees with committee chair Rep. Jack Reed’s (D-R.I.) non-binding statement that “there are growing national security concerns that require additional funds beyond the defense spending limit,” urging Biden “to send emergency supplemental funding requests to address those concerns.”

The House Armed Service Committee in a 58-1 vote on June 21–22 adopted a similar defense budget as its Senate counterpart with both featuring the same $886 billion top line that matches the Biden administration’s March defense budget request.

But the House plan does not call for additional funding or supplemental defense appropriations, which the Senate Armed Services Committee explicitly does in its proposed defense authorization act, adopted on June 23 in a 24-1 vote.

Nevertheless, House Armed Services Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) is among House GOP critics who say the proposed defense budget is “inadequate.”

A strong advocate for U.S. support for Ukraine, Rogers has been less vocal in backing more funding for Kyiv in recent weeks, but has suggested more money should be directed into countering China’s growing military.

No Debt-Deal NDAA?

The House and Senate armed services committees last week adopted their versions of the proposed 2024 defense authorization act, setting the stage for floor adoptions, a summer of intra-chamber conferencing, and hopeful adoption by late September.

While both proposed FY24 NDAAs reflect the $886.3 billion top-line figure submitted by the Biden administration, they shift monies around.

The Senate earmarks $876.8 billion in defense spending while the House’s version outlines $874.2 billion. Each plan estimates varied non-defense appropriations to reach a common top line of $886.3 billion.

As of June 26, the Senate has only released a 33-page executive summary of its proposed plan, which is far less detailed than the 416-page draft NDAA approved by the House Armed Services Committee.

The Senate and House are expected to pass their versions of the defense authorization act in July chamber votes. The House doesn’t convene again until July 11. The Senate returns the following day. Few hearings have been penciled in on the chambers’ July calendar.

Once each chamber adopts its proposed NDAA, conflicts within the plans will be reconciled in bicameral conferencing through summer before one common plan is presented for adoption to both chambers and presented to Biden for signing.

Under terms of the new debt-ceiling law, the Act must be adopted before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Failure to do so would induce a 1-percent across-the-board spending trim.

The debt-ceiling bill was passed by the House on May 31 and the Senate on June 1. It suspends the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit until Jan. 2025 in exchange for caps on federal discretionary spending over the next two years.

Under the deal, to provide the 3.3 increase in defense spending, discretionary non-defense spending in the FY24 federal budget is capped at $703.7 billion and then limited to no more than 1 percent increase in 2025.

House Republicans have proposed trimming an additional $120 billion from federal discretionary non-defense spending with proposed cuts of 15-to-30 percent for Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services departments.

Senate Wink-Nod For Fall Package

Congressional Democrats oppose the proposed slashes in non-defense spending. They are also raising questions about the viability of the $886 billion cap on the defense budget with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConn