‘NEVER BACK DOWN’ SENTIMENT FUELS GRIDLOCK: Every year, the Pentagon decries the impact of temporary funding measures that lock in spending at current levels, and every year, despite some of its best intentions, Congress fails to pass a budget on time and is forced to fall back on continuing resolutions, known as CRs.
This year was supposed to be different because, under a deal to raise the debt ceiling negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and signed by President Joe Biden, the Pentagon’s budget was capped at $886 billion and to encourage bipartisan compromise, the deal included an automatic 1% cut in discretionary spending if Congress does not pass all 12 appropriations bills by Jan. 1, 2024.
“The House managed to pass one of the 12 appropriations bills before leaving town for recess, while the Senate has yet to advance any, putting the two chambers on a tight timeline, with only a handful of days in which both chambers are in session,” reported Reese Gorman, Washington Examiner congressional reporter.
A stopgap CR would avoid a government shutdown at the end of September, but McCarthy faces opposition from the Freedom Caucus, whose demands have bedeviled McCarthy since he assumed the speakership.
“Anybody that is of the belief that moving forward with a three-month continuing resolution or a two-month solution that would fund the government at last year’s bloated level … if you think it is a good idea to do that for even a scintilla of a second, you’re insane,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) told KSEV Radio on Wednesday. “It is a non-starter.”
SCHUMER: ‘IF MCCARTHY FOLLOWS THE HARD RIGHT … HE IS GOING TO LOSE’: The fight is not just over the 12 appropriations measure but also the $40 billion supplemental request that includes $24 billion for Ukraine.
“The vast majority of the Republican caucus in the Senate and the Republican leader saying we need this supplemental,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told MSNBC yesterday.
“Speaker McCarthy and I met a few weeks back, and we agreed we should do what’s called a CR … where you just extend the existing funding for a few months so we could work this out. And I thought that was a good sign,” Schumer said. “We are working together to avoid that shutdown in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, but in the House, McCarthy is going to have the dilemma of dealing with these hard right people who are just totally destructive and angry.”
“If McCarthy follows the hard right and tries to do a partisan bill, he is going to lose. The hard right wants to shut down the government,” he said. “The American people never like the party that says, ‘I’m going to shut down the government unless I get my way.’”
THAT WOULD BE A ‘NO’: The other festering impasse that has both sides refusing to give an inch is the battle between Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who is on a one-man crusade to force the Pentagon to stop funding travel for abortions by blocking all senior officer promotions.
At Tuesday’s Pentagon briefing, deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh was asked by Fox News Pentagon producer Liz Friden if a compromise was possible with Tuberville.
“No,” was Singh’s blunt response. “I don’t mean to be flippant,” she said. “We’re not going to change our policy on ensuring that every single servicemember has equitable access to reproductive healthcare.”
“If you are a service member stationed in a state that has rolled back or restricted healthcare access, you are often stationed there because you were assigned there. It is not that you chose to go there,” Singh said. “And so a servicemember in Alabama deserves to have the same access to healthcare as a service member in California, as a servicemember stationed in Korea.”
A spokesman for Tuberville fired back in an email, blaming the cascading problem of unfilled leadership positions on the intransigence of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“I’ve noted before, this is a two-way street. Secretary Austin could end the holds TODAY if he wanted to,” said Steven Stafford, Tuberville’s communications director. “But the Biden Administration seems to think that illegally spending taxpayer dollars on abortion is more important than getting their senior military nominees confirmed. That is the tradeoff that Secretary Austin has made every single day since this started.”
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Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Conrad Hoyt. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre
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HAPPENING TODAY: A cryptic post on X, formerly Twitter, by Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi warns Washington residents they may see some unusual aircraft in the skies over the nation’s capital.
“The Secret Service, in conjunction with the FAA and other federal, state, and local partners, will test drone operations in the Washington D.C. area, including restricted air space areas, Aug. 17-24 and Aug. 28-29,” the brief statement said. “Usual flight restrictions are still in place during this time.”
A review of the Secret Service and FAA websites reveals no further details of the drone tests.
‘NOT A SINGLE BUILDING SURVIVED’: After a week of fierce fighting, Ukrainian forces have driven Russian forces out of the tiny village of Urozhaine, but reports on social media say the settlement in the southern Donetsk region was deserted and virtually destroyed.
“Not a single building survived,” said one post on X. “The last civilians — a family consisting of a man, a woman and their adult son — were evacuated from the village.”
“Ukrainian officials reported that Ukrainian forces liberated Urozhaine in the Zaporizhia-Donetsk Oblast border area, and the Ukrainian 35th Marine Brigade published footage of their personnel raising the Ukrainian flag in the center of the settlement,” said the Institute for the Study of War in its latest assessment. “Russian claims about Ukrainian assaults further south and east of the limits of the settlement further indicate that Ukrainian forces likely control the majority of the settlement.”
“Ukraine now holds positions on both banks of the river, opening up more options as its forces try to advance on Russian strongholds farther south. Kyiv’s goal is to reach the Sea of Azov and drive a wedge into the so-called land bridge between mainland Russia and occupied Crimea, a link that is vital to Moscow’s supply routes to the west,” reported the New York Times from Kyiv. “If Ukrainian forces can move deep enough into Russian-controlled territory to put supply lines at risk of direct artillery fire, they hope to make Russia’s defensive positions untenable.”
UKRAINE FUMES AT NATO TERRITORY SUGGESTION AS MEDVEDEV CALLS FOR RUSSIA TO GET KYIV
FIRST SHIP RUNS BLOCKADE: A cargo ship, Joseph Schulte, has become the first civilian ship to travel through what Ukraine has declared a “humanitarian corridor” on the Black Sea, in which vessels would be protected by Ukrainian sea drones until they reach territorial waters of NATO allies Romania and Bulgaria. The ship, which sails under a Hong Kong flag, left Odesa bound for Istanbul, Turkey.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia continues to attack port infrastructure and grain storage facilities.
“In just one month since Russia’s attempt to undermine the Black Sea Grain Initiative, this was the seventh, seventh massive Russian attack today,” Zelensky said. “Every Russian attack on them is a blow to global food prices, a blow to social and political stability in Africa and Asia. The basic things that give every society a normal life are food on the family table. No terrorist in the world, except for Russia, has ever attacked the security of so many nations at once so blatantly and deliberately.”
CARGO SHIP RUNS RUSSIA’S BLOCKADE OF UKRAINE’S PORTS
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: GOP split over looming spending deadline, setting stage for possible shutdown
Washington Examiner: China’s ‘entire’ US strategy upended by South Korea-Japan summit, Rahm Emanuel says
Washington Examiner: Cargo ship runs Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports
Washington Examiner: FAA loosens flight restrictions over Afghanistan, but airlines aren’t quick to resume practice
Washington Examiner: Ukraine fumes at NATO territory suggestion as Medvedev calls for Russia to get Kyiv
Washington Examiner: Russia now domestically producing own version of Iranian drones: UK
Washington Examiner: Texas woman charged with threatening to kill judge overseeing Trump Jan. 6 case
Washington Examiner: Opinion: The Biden administration appeases Iran over seized oil tanker
Reuters: Germany Walks Back Plan to Meet NATO Spending Target on Annual Basis
Defense News: Navy Decommissions LCS Sioux City After Less Than Five Years At Sea
CNN: Blinken speaks by phone with Paul Whelan, who is wrongfully detained in Russia
Wall Street Journal: Iran’s Nukes Are a Thorn for Saudi-Israeli Peace
U.S. News and World Report: Biden Warned That Deploying Marines To Deter Iran Risks Standoff
AP: Plea negotiations could mean no 9/11 defendants face the death penalty, the US tells families
AP: China’s Xi calls for patience as Communist Party tries to reverse economic slump
Bloomberg: China’s Defense Chief In Belarus As Tensions With NATO Mount
Washington Times: Navy Carrier Strike Group Deployed Near Taiwan
AP: China appears to be building an airstrip on a disputed South China Sea island
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Picks Startup to Build Blended-Wing Body Prototype for Flight Testing by 2027
Defense One: Plasma Breakthrough Could Enable Better Hypersonic Weapons, Spacecraft
The War Zone: F-35s Keep F-16s In the Fight During Northern Lightning
Military.com: Air Force Won’t Disclose Causes of 17 Deaths at Tinker Air Force Base This Year
Air & Space Forces Magazine: MQ-9 Pilots Learn To Take Off and Land Via Satellite in ACE Push
Air & Space Forces Magazine: STRATCOM Boss Touts Value of Bomber Task Forces: ‘Everyone Likes a Bomber in Their Region’
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Department of the Air Force Gets a New CIO
AP: Saudi Arabia says it executes American citizen convicted of killing his father
C4ISRNET: Orders Flooding in on Pentagon’s $9 Billion Cloud Contract
Space News: DARPA to Study Integrated Lunar Infrastructure
Calendar
THURSDAY | AUGUST 17
8 a.m. 4301 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Virginia — Intelligence and National Security Alliance discussion: “Open Source: Art of the Possible for National Security,” with Chris Rasmussen, founder and program manager at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Tearline Project; Mason Clark, senior analyst at the Institute for the Study of War; Matthew Daggett, technical staff member at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems group; Sam Gordy, president of Janes U.S.; and retired Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, CEO of Ashley Global Leadership and Security and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency https://www.insaonline.org/detail-pages/event
2 p.m. — The Hill virtual discussion: “We Are Not Alone; UFOs & National Security,” with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN).; Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL); Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL); and Greg Eghigian, professor of history and bioethics at Pennsylvania State University https://thehill.com/events/4141299-we-are-not-alone-ufos-national-security
FRIDAY | AUGUST 18
TBA Camp David, Maryland — Trilateral summit between President Joe Biden; Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida; and South Korean President President Yoon Suk Yeol
WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 30
10:30 a.m. — 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. — Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy and Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in-person and virtual event: “How much money for defense is enough?” with Michael O’Hanlon, director, Talbott Center; Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute; and Travis Sharp, senior fellow and director of defense budget studies, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments https://connect.brookings.edu/register-to-watch-how-much-money-for-defense
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The question is, then what do you do? Do you let an innocent American citizen who’s a father, a brother, just die in a foreign prison? Do you do nothing to bring them home? … How can we let an innocent American man perish in a foreign prison? Especially one who has been taken because he’s an American.”
Neda Sharghi, whose brother Emad has been wrongfully detained by Iran since 2018, responding to criticism that releasing billions of dollars to Tehran only encourages more hostage-taking.
