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Members of Congress are hoping legislation can help them restore Pentagon funds being redirected to support a wall on the southern border.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., is working on a bill to “claw back” the $3.8 billion being reprogrammed from the military, according to The Hill.
The 2020 funding includes more than $1 billion originally slated for National Guard modernization programs, including upgraded Humvees, new C-130Js and the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account. NGAUS and other associations have opposed the reprogramming.
Smith said he was working with others, including Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, on a bill to reverse the money moves.
“Time is of the essence, and I am right now working with leadership and others to try to get a piece of legislation to the floor as quickly as is possible,” he said. “They robbed the bank, and they are now running away with the money. We need to stop them before they get too far.”
Smith is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Thornberry is the ranking Republican and has also been a vocal critic of diverting defense dollars and overstepping the authority of Congress to set the budget.
Last week, Senate Democrats introduced their own bill to reverse reprogramming, led by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
That bill, the Restoring Military Priorities Act (S. 3339), would restore the funding first approved by Congress last year and reduce the Pentagon’s authority to transfer future funds. The bill has 31 co-sponsors, all of whom are Democrats.
Smith said he is hoping for Republican support of his bill but said he “wouldn’t bet the mortgage on it.”
Durbin said the reprogramming was an attack on Congress’ power of the purse and an attack on military readiness. He noted the reprogramming targeted the men and women of the National Guard and a variety of programs added by Congress to address shortfalls identified by military leaders.
“The Senate should reject the President’s money grab and reassert our Constitutionally-granted powers by supporting this legislation,” he said.
