HR 6157 – USA Gov Policy

President Trump has signed H.R. 6157 the Department of Defense’s $674 billion appropriations bill for the fiscal year 2019 period. It was the first time in over a decade that the military received its funding on schedule. After the budget slashes of the Obama Administration, the new bill, a $19.8-billion increase over the prior year, provides desperately needed resources, including a 2.6 percent pay raise for active duty service members.

Upon signing the measure, the President emphasized that “The bill … includes the largest pay raise for our warriors in nearly a decade. My Administration has secured funding to order 93 new F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighters, 142 Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, and 13 Navy battle force ships—made right here in the USA. This is the first time in more than a decade that our Defense Department has been given a full year of funding on time without relying on continuing resolutions…”

Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its subcommittee on defense stated: “This package continues a historic increase in funding for our nation’s defense, helping the President deliver on his commitment to rebuild the military and keep our Armed Forces the strongest and best trained, equipped, and prepared in the world.”

House Armed Forces Chair Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), noted: “When I became Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, too many of our senior commanders and DOD officials had become resigned to the notion that inadequate budgets and inefficient continuing resolutions were going to be facts of life far into the future. These same officials had begun to view degraded readiness and lost agility as risk factors they would have to accept when facing increasingly sophisticated adversaries. Today, President Trump’s signature begins to turn that situation around. It is a monumental achievement. By funding our military in full and on time, we can begin to restore its strength, agility, and effectiveness. The President was right to make rebuilding our military a high priority. I am grateful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers- especially Chairmen Frelinghuysen and Granger- for the years of effort dedicated to getting to this point. As I have said before, the task before us now is to make full, on time funding of our military the rule in Washington, and not the exception.”

Rep. Thornberry outlined the need for the increased funding:

America’s Military Today:

– Over the past 8 years we have reduced the size of the Army, Guard, and Reserve by as much as 120,000 Soldiers and eliminated 15 brigade combat teams.
-Only 9 of 58 Brigade Combat Teams are “ready to fight tonight.” This number has nearly doubled since Congress began reinvesting in military readiness.
– Funding to upgrade outdated Army equipment has been cut in half during the last several years.

What the Appropriations Bill will do: Invest $22.9 billion to get our troops ready to deploy, including:

– $3.0 billion to repair Army equipment
– $5.1 billion to recruit additional Soldiers
– $14.8 billion to replace or upgrade current equipment

America’s Military Today:

– Our Air Force is smaller than it has ever been, far smaller than it needs to be to meet challenges from Russia and China.
– The average age of Air Force aircraft is over 27 years old. The Air Force is 2,000 pilots short. The pilots we do have are flying fewer hours than their predecessors in the 1970s when the service was considered “hollow.”
– Less than half of the Navy’s aircraft are mission capable.
– Half of Marine Corps aviation units lack the minimum number of ready basic aircraft.

What the Appropriations Bill will do: Invest $45.3 billion to get our planes back in the air, including:
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– $11.1 billion to repair or upgrade old aircraft
– $31.9 billion to replace aircraft too old or broken to repair
– $2.3 billion to recruit and train more airmen and aircraft mechanics

America’s Military Today:

– Serious readiness shortfalls, including insufficient time or resources to train Sailors or maintain ships, contributed a number of accidents- including the fatal collisions of the USS Fitzgerald and USS McCain.
– In some cases, Sailors have been working over 100 hours a week to keep up with training requirements and current operations.
– Navy ships and submarines remain in port unable to sail and perform their mission due to critical maintenance that cannot be conducted due to budget cuts.

What the Appropriations Bill will do: Invest $38.2 billion to get our ships back to sea, including:

– $12.1 billion to repair the ships we have
– $24.1 billion to add new ships to the fleet
– $2.0 billion to recruit and train our Sailors

America’s Military Today:

– To fund other priorities with constrained budgets, the services have been diverting funds from facilities maintenance, a risky gamble that has accelerated the failure rate of our infrastructure.
– Estimates of the number of facilities that now meet the Pentagon’s definition of “failing” have doubled in recent years.
– Our Armed Forces are struggling with crumbling and mold-ridden barracks, hangars that have been condemned, air traffic control facilities and runways in disrepair, collapsed ceilings and contaminated water.
– The backlog of deferred maintenance on facilities has increased from $2 billion in 1978 to $100 billion today.

What the Appropriations Bill will do: Invest $11.8 billion to repair and sustain infrastructure including barracks, hangars, roads, runways, and hospitals.

– $11.8 billion to sustain, repair, and upgrade military infrastructure

Photo: Marines aim a 25mm chain gun during training aboard the USS Wasp in the South China Sea (Lance Cpl Alexis B. Betances)

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.