10
Loading video...
By Jesus Mesa
Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Senate Republicans to "IMMEDIATELY" move a $350 billion military spending package before Democrats take control of Congress in January, accusing the incoming majority of planning to "BLOCK and RESIST" what he called a historic investment in national security.
"I rebuilt our Military in my First Term, and we're doing it AGAIN, bigger and better than ever before!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "They want to leave our Warriors weak, and unguarded, but the American People want their Warriors SAFE and STRONG."
The post blames Democrats. Since Trump first demanded the money in June, though, the package's biggest hurdles have come from inside his own party.
Read More on Politics
Newsweek reached out to the White House and Senate Majority Leader John Thune's office for comment via email.
What the $350 Billion Would Pay For
The money is part of the administration's request for a $1.5 trillion defense budget in fiscal 2027. Of that total, $1.15 trillion was meant to go through the regular appropriations process and $350 billion through reconciliation.
The request includes $47 billion for expanded munitions production, $17 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system and more than $48 billion for critical minerals.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pressed lawmakers to pass it, arguing it would expand the defense industrial base. The military has burned through munitions in the war with Iran, and a Congressional Research Service report found that munitions spending in Operation Epic Fury caused "strategic inventory shortfalls."
Congress has so far moved a fraction of that. In July, House Republicans unveiled a third reconciliation framework with $60 billion for defense, roughly $290 billion short of the White House ask. The House adopted the $95 billion budget resolution by two votes. The Senate did not vote on one before the midterms.
The $350 billion also dwarfs what the White House wants to spend on some domestic priorities. It is more than four times the administration's proposed 2027 budget for the Department of Education and more than three times its discretionary request for the Department of Health and Human Services.
...
The Resistance Inside the GOP
Republicans are using budget reconciliation, a process that allows the majority to pass spending bills with a simple majority and skip the Senate filibuster. Democratic votes were never needed. What Republicans have lacked is agreement among themselves.
The first public pushback came in June, the day before Trump's initial demand. At a Senate Appropriations hearing, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican who chairs the defense subcommittee, said: "It's safe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill, so it's really not an option."
Maine Senator Susan Collins, who chairs the full committee, warned the Pentagon was taking a "terrible risk" by counting on reconciliation for the bulk of its money. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski also raised doubts, and Texas Senator John Cornyn, an adviser to GOP leadership, said a third package "causes too many challenges at this point."
The pressure picked up after the midterms. During this week's leadership elections, conservatives including Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who took over the Budget Committee after Lindsey Graham's death, clashed with Thune over the bill. Thune agreed to a conference statement pledging every effort to pass a budget resolution and a defense reconciliation package in the lame-duck session.
Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, the GOP conference chair, said earlier this week that Republicans would do "everything humanly possible" to get it done.
The pledge has not settled the vote count. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul called the bill "tone-deaf" and vowed to oppose it, Semafor reported. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley was not on board either.
"I can't imagine why we would do that," Hawley said.
Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, sits on the other side. "We need to get reconciliation done," he said.
Thune has said this week he is unsure the votes exist. Republicans can lose only three senators on a party-line vote. In the House, a handful of absences could sink it.
How It Compares With Health and Education Spending
The $350 billion would come on top of a defense budget already set to grow. Trump's 2027 budget proposal sought a 44 percent increase in military spending while cutting domestic spending by about $73 billion, or 10 percent.
Under that plan, the Department of Education would get $76.5 billion, down from $79 billion in 2026. White House budget director Russell Vought wrote that the budget keeps the department on its "path to elimination."
The Department of Health and Human Services would receive $111.1 billion in discretionary funding, a 12.5 percent cut. The plan takes about $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), eliminating several of its institutes, and $2.9 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Add it up and the reconciliation request alone is more than half the $660 billion the White House proposed for every nondefense agency combined.
Those are discretionary budgets, which Congress sets each year. Medicare and Medicaid run on mandatory spending and are far larger, and Republicans cut there too. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the first reconciliation package, cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the law will leave 10 million more Americans uninsured in 2034.
Congress mostly ignored Trump's proposed domestic cuts for 2026. Lawmakers gave NIH a $415 million increase instead.
Where Democrats Stand
...
Democrats have opposed the defense increase and war in Iran, and they have used the votes they have. In July, nearly every Senate Democrat voted against advancing the annual defense policy bill, leaving it short of 60 votes. Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on Armed Services, said he could not back a bill enabling an Iran war Congress never authorized.
Wicker answered that their objections centered on "what is not in the bill."
On spending, Democrats have drawn the same contrast as the numbers above. "It's the biggest increase in American history in a defense bill, and then you cut the non-defense by $13 billion," Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told Semafor in June.
Delaware Senator Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the defense appropriations subcommittee, said the request puts munitions, F-35 spare parts and missile defense programs "into a reconciliation package that I doubt will ever be enacted."
The reconciliation route was designed to go around Democrats. Once they take over both chambers in January, it closes for Republicans, which explains the rush.
"Republicans must deliver for our Warriors. The Democrats never will," Trump wrote. "The time is NOW."
Some Republicans are looking at a backup. Collins and other appropriators would like to attach emergency defense money to a stopgap spending bill, The Hill reported, though it is unclear whether Democrats would agree. Aides in both parties increasingly expect the annual funding bills, Pentagon money included, to slide into 2027.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Edward T. Cummins
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines