Bipartisan US lawmakers warn Pentagon budget gridlock threatens Golden Dome missile defense

FARNBOROUGH, UK — U.S. lawmakers attending Europe’s largest airshow sounded alarms over the fate of this year’s Pentagon budget, warning that the Trump administration’s top defense priorities—including the Golden Dome missile defense program—are in peril.

A bipartisan congressional delegation at the Farnborough International Airshow told reporters on Monday that gridlock surrounding this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an Iran war supplemental, and additional funding measures likely points to a continuing resolution (CR): a stopgap funding measure that would keep the government open at current-year spending levels.

“We're not going to get an NDAA bill done anytime soon,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “Anybody, no offense to anybody, anybody who thinks we're going to do an NDAA in the midterm needs to back off the crank. It's not going to happen.”

Kennedy later added, “We'll get the NDAA done” and “I hope we’ll have a CR to continue the budget, but after that, I really don't know.”

Political infighting over the defense budget comes as President Donald Trump has pushed European countries to provide for their own defense and to buy American weapons. Given the gridlock in Washington, the administration has proposed making heavy, partisan use of an unusual budget maneuver called reconciliation.

“There's a concern that if you start doing defense and reconciliation, it can create a bad habit, and I get all of that,” Kennedy said on the sidelines of Farnborough. “But the military needs money, and the only way to get it to them in this environment is through reconciliation.”

Some $350 billion of the administration’s initial $1.5 trillion defense budget request relies on reconciliation, which allows funding legislation to pass by a simple majority. The sum includes major defense priorities such as munitions, shipbuilding, and autonomous warfare efforts. Congress has since reduced the reconciliation amount to $60 billion, mostly to support the war in Iran.

“I'd go a little bit heavier on the defense money, but that's just me. I'll take it if that's the best we can do,” Kennedy said.

Democrats disagree.

“I think it does set a dangerous precedent, and I think the Appropriations Committee, both Democrats and Republicans, have been pretty clear with the department about that, about concern that if this is a priority, it should go in the base budget,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in a sideline gaggle with reporters. “There isn’t going to be a third reconciliation package, so anything that's in there is not going anywhere.”

Golden Dome

Republican lawmakers are also casting doubt on using reconciliation to pass one of the Trump administration’s biggest defense priorities: the sprawling Golden Dome missile defense program.

A mere $400 million of the $17.5 billion the Pentagon is seeking for Golden Dome comes from the baseline budget, with the remainder from reconciliation funds. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) told reporters at Farnborough that the secretive missile defense investment “is needed” but expressed concern over the administration’s partisan funding maneuvers.

“I'm worried it's in reconciliation, because I don't know if that's going to happen or not,” Fischer said.

Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said there are other avenues outside of reconciliation to secure the Golden Dome funding the administration wants.

“I think this is one of the priority items in reconciliation [that] they will find a way to work into a funding bill,” Harrison said. “If not this one, then the base budget or something else.”

Kennedy, like Fischer, said the missile defense system is needed but added that there are more pressing priorities.

“It's going to be expensive,” Kennedy said of Golden Dome. “Will we get it done in this Congress? I wouldn't bet my house on it. And if I were betting your house on it, it'd be a maybe.”