THE HOUSE’S SUB SCUFFLE: Today we will see what side House members come down on in the battle over Navy purchases of Virginia-class attack submarines. “Are we as a nation willing to make the commitment to ensure our future national security? Here’s the deal: We’re losing submarines at a breakneck pace because we’re not building them fast enough to replace the ones that are retiring,” Rep. Rob Wittman, who chairs the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee, said on the House floor. Wittman, along with subcommittee ranking member Rep. Joe Courtney and 20 other members, are pushing a $1 billion amendment to the House’s defense appropriations bill to boost the sub purchases.

FORMAL REQUEST COMES IN: The Pentagon has been insisting for days that the reason it has been unable to provide more details about plans to house migrants who cross the southern border illegally at U.S. military bases was because it had yet to receive a formal request. Last night that request came in, and the Department of Homeland Security is asking for 12,000 beds, bringing the total to 32,000.

“It’s up to 20,000 beds for kids and up to 12,000 beds for families,” said Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

The new request for assistance from DHS asks the Pentagon to first look around and see if it has existing facilities that could house “an alien family population of up to 12,000 people.”

If there are no existing facilities available, then DHS is requesting the military begin to construct tent cities, referred to as “semi-separate, soft-sided camp facilities,” to house up to 4,000 people at three separate locations. It says it needs the camps to be located in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico or California in order to comply with a court ruling known as the Flores Settlement that requires “reasonable efforts be made to place minors in the geographic area where the majority are apprehended.”

Yesterday, Pentagon officials noted the earlier suggestions that the camps begin accepting migrant families as of July was not a realistic goal. The new request asks for the Pentagon to be able to house 2,000 people within 45 days, or by mid-August, as well as develop a timeline add additional capacity.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has already committed to providing whatever is needed, and intensified two bases in Texas — Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base. But DHS is now asking for facilities at three locations.

HAPPENING TODAY, MATTIS HEADS HOME: Mattis is making stops in South Korea and Japan before heading back to Washington following talks in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Gen. Wei Fenghe. The Pentagon described the talks as “open and candid” and said they addressed “a broad range of issues,” including the strained military-to-military relations between the two countries. Mattis stressed that the U.S. and China bear responsibility for maintaining a relationship that serves the interests of both countries and helps bring stability to the region.

U.S. STAYING PUT: He’s said it before and he said it again in Seoul. In his meeting today with South Korea Defense Minister Song Young-moo, Mattis reiterated that the U.S. commitment is “ironclad,” and that included maintaining the “current U.S. force levels” in South Korea of about  28,500 American troops.

And Mattis characterized President Trump’s decision to suspend major joint “war games” with the South as simply providing an increased opportunity for diplomacy to work in the effort to get North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program. Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces in Korea, said he did not foresee a permanent end to the large-scale exercises

A PAUSE, NOT AND END: While the president talks about ending the “provocative” and “expensive,” joint military drills, on Capitol Hill yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to the suspension of the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian as merely a “pause.”

“I’m OK with suspending exercises because you can always start them back. We train in other forms,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was questioning Pompeo. “I would not be OK with withdrawing our troops from South Korea because I think they’re a stabilizing force for the region.”

“Do you agree?” Graham asked. “I do. Yes, senator,” Pompeo replied.

DEPOTS HEARING: The House Armed Services Committee hears testimony about depot policy issues and concerns about the facilities at 8:30 a.m. from Lt. Gen. Aundre Piggee, the Army’s deputy chief of staff, and Brig. Gen. Joseph Shrader, the general in charge of Marine Corps Logistics Command.

ZTE THREAT: Small businesses are more vulnerable to overseas cyberattacks because they lack the resources to protect themselves, warned a panel of lawmakers evaluating the Trump administration’s policy toward Chinese telecommunications company ZTE.

ZTE and rival Huawei have come under increased scrutiny this year from U.S. intelligence officials who cautioned products from the companies could pose significant national security risks. The Pentagon has barred ZTE and Huawei from selling phones on military bases, and shifting regulations on ZTE’s sales in commercial markets sparked a dispute between the White House and Congress.

TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT IS A GO: Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet for a one-on-one summit on July 16 in Helsinki, the White House announed.

Putin says he wants to restore “full-format relations” with the U.S. while blaming America for the current rise in tensions. “Russia has never sought confrontation, and I hope that we can talk today about what can be done by both sides to restore full-format relations on the basis of equality and respect,” Putin said.

LOTS TO TALK ABOUT: The groundwork for the summit was laid in Moscow yesterday by national security adviser John Bolton, who said in a news conference the two leaders will discuss “mutual problems and areas of cooperation,” which he said would “contribute to improvements in the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship and stability around the world.”

At a Senate hearing yesterday, Pompeo said Russia continues to violate an agreement in Syria by flying missions in the southwest in support of Bashar Assad. “We have both spoken to them about it and issued public statements indicating exactly that,” Pompeo told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the State Department’s budget. “It is not just our voice, it’s the voice of the Israelis and the Jordanians as well who have made clear that we find moving in a way that is inconsistent with the agreement that was signed off on by Vladimir Putin himself is unacceptable.”

Pompeo also insisted Trump would bring up Russian meddling in elections in the U.S. and other countries. “I am confident when the president meets with Vladimir Putin, he will make clear that meddling in our elections is completely unacceptable.”

NOT TIME TO PULL TROOPS OUT SYRIA: Pompeo also conceded that with Assad consolidating his gains and the Islamic State not yet defeated, it’s too soon to talk about withdrawing the 2,200 U.S. troops now in Syria. “We are not yet in a position where we have sufficient leverage to achieve the political outcome that is in the best interest of the United States and the world,” he told lawmakers.

“Hopefully we can get back to the political process that is stalled. It stalled out before I took office, a couple months prior to that,” Pompeo said. “It seems to me Iran presents the greatest threat to the United States and the place we ought to focus our efforts, at least at the beginning with respect to the political resolution.”

PINNING HOPES ON THE TALIBAN: In Afghanistan, the U.S. continues to express the hope that the good feelings fostered by a brief cease-fire, combined with more effective military pressure, will convince the Taliban to start talking seriously about peace.

“Now that the Afghan people have had a taste of that peace, their calls for a lasting peace have multiplied across the country and been heard worldwide, increasing pressure on the Taliban to reconcile,” said Brig. Gen. Lance Bunch, in another upbeat U.S. military assessment given to reporters at the Pentagon.

But Bunch also revealed the Taliban have violated the Afghan government’s cease-fire at least 38 times apart from a brief three-day period when it honored the truce that coincided with the Muslim religious holiday of Eid.

THE RUNDOWN

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