CONGRESS TACKLES DEFENSE FUNDING: Skeptics could be forgiven for thinking, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” given Congress’ consistent track record of late budgets and stopgap measures over the past decade. But lawmakers are taking a run today at finishing up 2019 defense appropriations before the fiscal year deadline at the end of the month.

HAPPENING TODAY, HURRICANE PREPS: U.S. Northern Command, in its role of supporting FEMA and state governments, is positioning assets for disaster response as a “monster” hurricane slowly approaches the Carolina coast. Florence has weakened to a Category 2 but is expected to dump more than 20 inches of rain, causing widespread and destructive flooding and storm surges up to 12 feet.

NORTHCOM says in anticipation of Florence making landfall more than 2,700 Army and Air National Guard members have been activated from multiple states to provide support with high water transportation, debris reduction, commodity distribution, shelter management assistance and helicopter search and rescue operations.

At 10 a.m. the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hear testimony from Army Maj. Gen. Scott Spellmon, deputy commanding general for civil and emergency operations, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, on federal disaster response.

This afternoon, Pentagon officials will brief reporters on plans for response and recovery operations. The 4 p.m. briefing by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Kenneth Rapuano and NORTHCOM Commander Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy will be streamed live here.

YEMEN BRIEFING COMING: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are making an “urgent and good-faith effort” to end the bloody, three-year-old war gripping Yemen and ease humanitarian suffering. “The Trump administration has been clear that ending the conflict in Yemen is a national security priority,” Pompeo said.

The National Defense Authorization Act signed by Trump in August mandated Pompeo certify the efforts by Wednesday or it would have stopped U.S. military aerial refueling of Saudi and UAE warplanes. But the NDAA also requires a briefing to Congress on the war operations. Trump delegated Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to handle that and they are scheduled to meet with senators a week from today.

MORE QUESTIONS: The certification Wednesday did little to allay concerns. Pressure has been mounting in Congress to end the military support following Saudi strikes that killed civilians, including 40 children on a school bus in August. Sen. Todd Young, a Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee who co-authored the NDAA requirement, said questions still remain and he will take his concerns directly to the administration in the coming days.

“The administration acknowledges a dramatic increase in civilian casualties and deaths from coalition airstrikes over the last few months. The administration also acknowledges that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have not fully complied with agreements and laws regulating defense articles purchased or transferred from the United States,” Young said.

CERTIFICATION ‘FARCE’: Congressional Democrats and some outside groups were blunter. Oxfam, the global charity, said Pompeo was “blindly supporting” the Yemen operations “without any allegiance to facts, moral code or humanitarian law.” Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called the certification a farce. “The Saudis deliberately bombed a bus full of children. There is only one moral answer, and that is to end our support for their intervention in Yemen,” he tweeted.

“How can the Trump administration deny what everyone can see with our own two eyes? It is as clear as day that Saudi-led coalition is recklessly — and likely intentionally — killing innocent civilians and children, and they’re doing it with U.S. bombs and so-called targeting assistance,” Sen. Chris Murphy said in a statement.

THE ‘TRUTH’ ABOUT AFGHANISTAN: The Center for Strategic and International Studies is out with its latest analysis on the long war in Afghanistan and it’s not a good news story. The report, titled “Telling the Truth About the War in Afghanistan,” is critical of how progress is portrayed in overly upbeat reports and bad news is downplayed, or in some cases covered up.

“Much of [the reporting] has been honest and objective — particularly in the press briefings and conferences given by senior officers and field commanders,” writes Anthony Cordesman, but he adds there have been far too many “lies of omission.” “More and more forms of reporting and metrics have been eliminated, embarrassing information has been classified, methods of reporting have been changed in ways that are not properly explained…”

The analysis concludes that since 2011 the U.S. has systematically cut back on the level of reporting by shifting to metrics that provide more favorable results, no longer reporting on the civil problems in Afghanistan, and using over-classification to avoid revealing sensitive data.

TOO SOON? The word from the White House that Trump is considering a second summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un isn’t sitting well with Frank Gaffney, head of the conservative Center for Security Policy. “To be sure, another summit would be problematic if it proves again to be long on empty promises of the North’s disarmament — promises that simply serve to obscure, rather than curb, Kim’s relentless build-up of his nuclear, missile and other military forces,” Gaffney said on his daily radio commentary.

And Gaffney accuses South Korean President Moon Jae-in of undermining Trump’s diplomacy by showing a willingness “to engage in actual, unilateral and reckless disarmament — among other unwarranted concessions to Pyongyang.”

WHAT’S GOING ON? Meanwhile 38 North, the group of experts who monitor North Korea, reports that an analysis of commercial satellite imagery indicates that over the past eight months, a shelter has been torn down, rebuilt and then dismantled again at North Korea’s March 16 [Truck] Factory.

“The exact nature of this activity is unknown, however, it is probable that it is related to the North’s ballistic missile program,” the group concludes, citing the building’s design, which is consistent with a facility to construct a mobile missile launcher.

“The shelter has a unique stepped configuration with what satellite imagery suggests is a reinforced pad under its highest point — both characteristics that would be essential for testing a transporter-erector-launcher’s (TEL) or mobile-erector-launcher’s (MEL) elevation cradle and detachable launch table,” the group says.

BEGINNING OF THE END IN SYRIA: In recent days the U.S. has issued stern warnings to Syria about the consequences of using chemical weapons, as the Syrian army backed by Iran and Russia prepares an assault to retake the province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold. But it seems unwilling to stop what appears to be looming humanitarian disaster. It’s estimated there are tens of thousands of opposition fighters as well as three million civilians trapped in Idlib.

Syrian and Russian warplanes have been bombing the southern part of Idlib for days in advance of what is expected to be a major ground operation that could effectively end the seven-year-old civil war with a victory for Bashar Assad.

Mark Dubowitz, head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argues the U.S. does not have to stay on the sidelines. “The U.S. military should destroy Syria’s air force on the ground. And announce that’s merely the beginning if the offensive continues,” Dubowitz argues.

SANCTIONING IRANIAN MILITIAS: Republican Sens. David Perdue, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio want to sanction two Iranian-controlled militias in Iraq and Syria. Their bill, The Iranian Proxies Terrorist Sanctions Act, was prompted by recently declassified reports suggesting that Iran provided ballistic missiles and funding for terrorist activities to two Shia proxies.

“Iran’s dangerous proxy militias in Iraq and Syria pose a serious threat to the Middle East and the world,” Rubio said in a statement. “This legislation would impose sanctions against Iran’s proxy militias and their agents and affiliates, and make clear that the United States opposes the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses, pursuit of ballistic missile programs, and terrorist activities around the world.”

NEW SASC DIRECTOR: The Senate Armed Services Committee has a new staff director. John Bonsell, a retired Army colonel, will take over the job for the Republican majority, Sen. Jim Inhofe, the new chairman, announced. Bonsell was vice president of government relations at the contracting firm Science Applications International Corp. He will take over for Chris Brose, who served as staff director under John McCain before he passed away.

CRUCIAL F-35 TEST AWAITS SOFTWARE UPDATE: The Pentagon’s testing director has delayed slightly the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation for Lockheed Martin’s F-35. A memo obtained by the Project On Government Oversight shows Robert Behler, the director of Operational Test and Evaluation, wants the next phase of testing to use the latest version of the software, which is crucial to the high-tech plane’s performance.

POGO says the final phase of combat testing, which had been set for Sept. 15, will be delayed until the F-35 program address several issues, including updating operating software, mission data files, Autonomic Logistics Information System, and testing range infrastructure software.

But a source familiar with the program told me the slight delay is just a common sense move to ensure the testing is done with the “latest and greatest” version of the operating software.

HELP FROM INDIA: An enhanced U.S-India relationship could help counter China’s expanding military and diplomatic influence around the world, senior Pentagon and State Department officials said Wednesday.

“That’s something where there’s no boundary, or no seam, to how the United States and India can conceive of items for discussion or areas of potential cooperation,” said David Helvey, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs.

SPACE BLAME: A top Russian politician insists that it’s wrong to blame American or Russian astronauts for damage done to the International Space Station. “It is absolutely impermissible to cast a shadow either on our cosmonauts or U.S. astronauts,” Russian deputy prime minister Yuri Borisov said, according to state-run TASS news agency.

A leak caused the space station to lose pressure in late August, sparking an investigation and worries that the U.S.-Russia rivalry had marred the most cooperative space venture in the world. Another Russian outlet reported that “the Roscosmos probe was considering, among other likely causes of the damage to Soyuz, deliberate actions by U.S. astronauts, who in this way wished to speed up their return home.”

THE RUNDOWN

Washington Examiner: Tom Cotton: US should exit surveillance treaty with Russia

AP: Putin attends Russia-China war games

Foreign Policy: Why the Military Must Learn to Love Silicon Valley

Air Force Times: Air Force, Navy team up to find root of hypoxia, other physiological episodes

New York Times: Why a ‘Dramatic Dip’ in ISIS Attacks in the West Is Scant Comfort

Task and Purpose: Pioneering Female Infantry Marine Kicked Out Of The Corps For Fraternization

Daily Beast: White House Order on Election Meddling Has No Teeth, Officials Say

Marine Corps Times: Camp Lejeune is preparing for war with Hurricane Florence

Reuters: European NATO jets showcase unified Russian deterrence

USNI News: Marines Prepared to Use F-35Bs in Middle East Combat If Needed; No Other Naval Aviation Nearby