House Committee Advances $150 Billion Bill For Top Military Projects.

While DOGE may have saved $160 billion so far, the Pentagon now 'needs’ $150 billion of new funding under the guise of supporting various Trump priorities.

The Pentagon in Washington, on March 3, 2022. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

The House Armed Services Committee advanced the supplemental spending plan on Tuesday in a 35-21 vote during a markup hearing.

The plan was unveiled on April 27 by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), with Congressional Republicans preparing it for reconciliation – a process which allows Congress to pass legislation concerning taxation and government spending without requiring the 60 Senate votes typically needed to invoke cloture and avoid a filibuster.

Republicans have several such reconciliation bills in the pipeline.

The military spending bill will now be added to a broader continuing resolution to fund the federal government through the remainder of FY2025.

It provides $25 billion this year for Trump’s plan to overhaul the US missile defense network, as laid out in Trump’s January executive order calling for an „Iron Dome for America.”

As the Epoch Times notes further, other top priorities in the military spending supplemental include $34 billion to boost shipbuilding and $21 billion to replenish depleted munitions stockpiles.

Earlier this month, Trump signed executive orders aiming to boost U.S. shipbuilding and arms procurement capabilities.

The proposal also assigns around $14 billion for various innovation projects, including low-cost attritable weapons systems, $13 billion for efforts to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and $12 billion for general readiness projects like base infrastructure projects and efforts to boost stocks of spare parts.

Another $11 billion would go toward the U.S. military’s Pacific components to conduct training exercises and bolster regional defenses.

Another $7 billion would support various projects to enhance existing aircraft and develop new ones.

This would include $400 million to boost the development of the recently announced F-47 stealth fighter jet.

Border security would also get a spending boost.

The supplemental lays out $5 billion for Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security efforts to prevent illegal border crossings, and to conduct immigration and counter-drug enforcement operations.

The bill calls for around $9 billion more for quality of life improvements for military personnel and their families.

The additional funding would increase allowances for housing, health care, and family assistance programs.

Opening the April 29 markup hearing, Rogers said: “The time for this level of investment is long overdue.”

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), by contrast, cast doubts as to whether the Defense Department could make efficient use of the new funding.

Smith, who is the committee’s ranking member, said: “I cannot support throwing another $150 billion that I absolutely guarantee you will not be well spent.”

Democrats on the House committee’s minority submitted 21 amendments to the Republican-led reconciliation bill, all of which failed to make it in.

One amendment that Smith offered called for all but 25 percent of the new funds to remain locked up until Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders a review of policies and procedures for handling classified and sensitive information.

Smith and other committee Democrats used the hearing to reiterate concerns about recent incidents in which Hegseth discussed military operations on the Signal messaging application.

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) also offered an amendment to reduce Hegseth’s salary to $1.

Ryan submitted yet another amendment to block any of the funds described in the military spending reconciliation bill from being made available to business entities operated by special government employees.

Billionaire entrepreneur and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been advising the Trump administration and has been designated as a special government employee.

Committee Democrats offered other amendments to block the Department of Defense from relieving senior officers of their commands or terminating different groups of civilian employees.

Other amendments would have made much of the proposed funds contingent on the completion of a successful department financial audit, a task the department has failed to achieve in the past seven consecutive years it has tried.