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03 Oct 23. McCarthy’s speakership threatened in part by defense bill. As House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., fights to hold onto his position this week, Democrats have made clear he can’t count on their support, partly because of lingering resentment over the annual defense policy bill.
A 216-210 vote on Tuesday ousted McCarthy as speaker after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., followed through on threats to remove him from power. Gaetz filed the motion to remove McCarthy after the Republican leader worked with Democrats at the last minute this weekend to pass a short-term funding bill needed to avoid a government shutdown.
The brief bipartisan moment did little to endear McCarthy to Democrats, and the speaker did not offer them any concessions to win their votes despite his slim majority. Democrats subsequently voted with Gaetz and a small group of conservative Republicans, teeing up what could be another prolonged speakership battle for McCarthy in less than a year.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., released a letter after a meeting with his caucus Tuesday morning, citing the House’s fiscal 2024 defense policy bill as one of the reasons for Democrats’ refusal to back McCarthy.
“The Armed Services Committee this summer worked hard to advance a strongly bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to the House Floor,” Jeffries wrote. “Instead of supporting our military readiness and embracing this bipartisan legislative effort, Republicans hijacked the National Defense Authorization Act and turned the bill into a right-wing wish list full of highly partisan poison pills.”
The House narrowly passed 219-210 the National Defense Authorization Act in July largely along party lines after Republicans added several socially conservative provisions pushed by Gaetz and other members of the conservative Freedom Caucus. Except on rare occasions, Congress usually passes the NDAA with robust bipartisan support.
“The House Republican decision to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people included radical provisions to rip away reproductive freedom from military women,” Jeffries wrote. “This type of extreme governance is unacceptable.”
The House’s $874bn NDAA includes amendments that overturn the Pentagon’s abortion leave policy, restrict medical care for transgender troops, eliminate military diversity initiatives and bar the Pentagon from implementing President Joe Biden’s climate change initiatives.
The Senate passed 86-11 its own bipartisan NDAA in July without the socially conservative policy and climate provisions, teeing up complicated negotiations on a final bill between the two chambers in the weeks ahead.
Jeffries also cited House Republicans’ recent impeachment inquiry into Biden as a reason his caucus would not support McCarthy. Additionally, his letter faulted a series of concessions McCarthy made to the Freedom Caucus that gave them more power over House procedures and floor votes in order to win his weeklong speakership battle in January. (Source: Defense News)
29 Sep 23. US Secretary of the Navy urges a “new maritime statecraft.”
Secretary Del Toro’s “new maritime statecraft” involves playing catch-up with China to make the US Government’s naval diplomacy more authoritative. The US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro called for a “new maritime statecraft” to prevail in an era of intense strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China, during remarks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, 26 September 2023.
Del Toro’s proposal was made in response to China building up its naval fleet at a rapid pace, which he points out is set to reach 400 naval warships by 2030 compared to the current US force structure target of 355. Simultaneously, China’s naval growth is matched by its commercial maritime power as the Secretary of the Navy indicates that the Asian superpower has established an ownership stake in 95 ports across 53 countries.
Del Toro’s call for a new maritime statecraft is a call to reverse the “operational and economic risk for the American economy.”
“History proves that, in the long run, there has never been a great naval power that wasn’t also a maritime power — a commercial shipbuilding and global shipping power.”
Del Toro reiterated to the audience that the Biden administration is “committed to finding comprehensive solutions through pragmatic diplomacy”. (Source: naval-technology.com)
29 Sep 23. F-35 program finishes years-late tests needed for full production. The F-35 program has completed a long-delayed series of crucial tests, which could pave the way for a decision next year to officially move the advanced fighter jet into full-rate production.
The Joint Simulation Environment tests, known as “runs for score,” were finished Sept. 21, as was the initial trial validation, F-35 Joint Program Office spokesman Russell Goemaere said in an email to Defense News Friday.
The Pentagon’s Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, will now analyze the data collected in the tests, which were conducted through much of September. DOT&E’s report on the F-35′s performance in the JSE tests could be delivered to Pentagon leaders by the end of December.
The Joint Simulation Environment’s 64 test trials at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland were designed to put all three versions of the F-35 through a variety of in-depth scenarios, similar to situations they would likely encounter in real-world combat.
DOT&E said in a report released in January that those scenarios would include defensive counter-air, cruise missile defense, and combined offensive counter-air, air interdiction and destruction of enemy air defense trials.
The completion of the JSE tests marks a crucial step for the program — one that is needed before the F-35′s initial operational test and evaluation phase can be closed, and the Pentagon can make a Milestone C decision that officially authorizes it to enter full rate production.
In an interview with Air and Space Forces Magazine this month, the head of the F-35 program, Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt said a Milestone C decision would likely be made in early 2024. But Schmidt acknowledged to the magazine that the fighter is already being built at nearly full capacity, muting the effect a full-rate production authorization would have. Lockheed Martin typically aims to build roughly 150 F-35s each year.
The watchdog Project on Government Oversight has criticized the Pentagon for producing F-35s as if it were already in full-rate production, before such crucial tests were completed. POGO analyst Dan Grazier told Defense News earlier this year that if the F-35′s testing finds problems with the fighter before a full-rate production decision is officially made, it would mean hundreds of fighters already built and in use could need extensive retrofitting.
The Pentagon originally hoped to make a Milestone C decision on the F-35 in December 2019, but the deadline repeatedly slipped as the setup of the Joint Simulation Environment fell further behind schedule.
Creating the simulation environment proved challenging for the department, and the Pentagon struggled with the verification, validation and accreditation process. The tests fell years behind schedule.
In a roundtable with reporters at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Space Cyber conference earlier this month, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he was confident the JSE would allow the F-35 to go through the tests it needs, and said it contained “a really remarkable set of capabilities.”
Kendall said many of the JSE test results would be classified. (Source: Defense News)
29 Sep 23. Department of Defense and Small Business Administration Roll Out the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technologies (SBICCT) Initiative. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman announced the rollout of the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology (SBICCT) Initiative, a joint effort between the SBA and the Department of Defense (DoD) to increase private capital investment in critical technologies that strengthen our economic and national security.
SBICCT is the first initiative under the historic SBA-DoD partnership, launched by the Secretary and the Administrator in December 2022, to grow private sector investment in component-level technologies and production processes vital to US national security interests.
Specifically, the SBICCT Initiative will pair private capital with federally-guaranteed loans to increase investment in DoD’s critical technology areas. The DoD’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) and the SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) will execute this partnership, coupling the SBA’s experience executing its established and highly successful Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program with the DoD’s robust scientific and technical expertise and national security mission.
“To maintain our competitive advantage, the United States must continue to harness its unmatched strengths — its private capital markets, national security supplier base, and vibrant technological ecosystem. In alignment with the National Defense Strategy, the SBICCT Initiative will further enable DoD to work with both government and the private sector to build enduring advantages for the warfighter and for the taxpayer,” Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said.
The SBICCT Initiative will demonstrate the power of public-private partnerships to grow and modernize our national security supplier base, strengthening our enduring national and economic security.
For more information on the SBICCT Initiative and application criteria, please visit the SBA website.
About the Office of Strategic Capital
Established by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on December 1, 2022, the Office of Strategic Capital has a mission to ensure the future warfighter has the capabilities they need by attracting and scaling private capital to critical technologies for national security. Follow the work of the Office of Strategic Capital at https://www.cto.mil/osc/.(Source: U.S. DoD)
30 Sep 23. House passes a 45-day funding plan, sends it to Senate as clock ticks. On the brink of a federal government shutdown, the House on Saturday swiftly approved a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open as Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage to send the package to the Senate.
The new approach would leave behind aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of GOP lawmakers, but the plan would increase federal disaster assistance by $16bn, meeting President Joe Biden’s full request. The package was approved 335-91, with most Republicans and almost all Democrats supporting.
Are you ‘essential?’ What happens to your job in a government shutdown
With hours to go before the midnight deadline to fund the government, the Senate was also in for a rare weekend session and prepared to act next.
“We’re going to do our job,” McCarthy said before the House vote. “We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.”
With no deal in place before Sunday, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2m active-duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast will begin to face shutdown disruptions.
The House measure would fund government at current 2023 levels for 45 days, through Nov. 17, moving closer to the bipartisan approach in the Senate. But the Senate package would have added $6 bn for Ukraine to fight the war against Russia and $6bn for U.S. disaster relief.
Both chambers came to a standstill as lawmakers assessed their options, some decrying the loss of Ukraine aid.
“The American people deserve better,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, warning in a lengthy floor speech that “extreme” Republicans were risking shutdown.
For the House package to be approved, McCarthy, R-Calif., was forced to rely on Democrats because the speaker’s hard-right flank has said it will oppose any short-term funding measure, denying him the votes needed from his slim majority. It’s a move that risks his job amid calls for his ouster.
After leaving his right-flank behind, McCarthy is almost certain to be facing a motion to try to remove from office, though it is not at all certain there would be enough votes to topple the speaker. Most Republicans voted for the package Saturday while 90 opposed.
“If somebody wants to remove me because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try,” McCarthy said of the threat to oust him. “But I think this country is too important.”
The White House was tracking the developments on Capitol Hill and aides were briefing the president, who was spending the weekend in Washington.
The quick pivot comes after the collapse Friday of McCarthy’s earlier plan to pass a Republican-only bill with steep spending cuts up to 30% to most government agencies that the White House and Democrats rejected as too extreme.
“Our options are slipping away every minute,” said one senior Republican, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida.
The federal government is heading straight into a shutdown that poses grave uncertainty for federal workers in states all across America and the people who depend on them — from troops to border control agents to office workers, scientists and others.
Families that rely on Head Start for children, food benefits and countless other programs large and small are confronting potential interruptions or outright closures. At the airports, Transportation Security Administration officers and air traffic controllers are expected to work without pay, but travelers could face delays in updating their U.S. passports or other travel documents.
An earlier McCarthy plan to keep the government open collapsed Friday due to opposition from a faction of 21 hard-right holdouts despite steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions.
The White House has brushed aside McCarthy’s overtures to meet with Biden after the speaker walked away from the debt deal they brokered earlier this year that set budget levels.
Catering to his hard-right flank, McCarthy had returned to the spending limits the conservatives demanded back in January as part of the deal-making to help him become the House speaker.
After Friday’s vote, McCarthy’s chief Republican critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, said the speaker’s bill “went down in flames as I’ve told you all week it would.”
Gaetz has warned he will file a motion calling a vote to oust the speaker.
Some of the Republican holdouts, including Gaetz, are allies of former President Donald Trump, who is Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 race. Trump has been encouraging the Republicans to fight hard for their priorities and even to “shut it down.”
At an early closed-door meeting at the Capitol, several House Republicans, particularly those facing tough reelections next year, urged their colleagues to find a way to prevent a shutdown.
“All of us have a responsibility to lead and to govern,” said Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York.
But the lone Democrat to vote against the package, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, called it a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin and “Putin-sympathizers everywhere.” He said, “Protecting Ukraine is in our national interest.”
(Source: Defense News)
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