Rep. Green Files Bill to Require Defense Department to Resume Sending Congress Report on Defense Spending by U.S. Allies

U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) said he is working to strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and America’s other treaty alliances by trying to make clear how much allies spend on the common defense.

Green, a former Army special operations flight surgeon and West Point graduate, introduced the Allied Burden Sharing Report Act of 2019 in the U.S. House on Wednesday, according to a press release.

Green introduced this bill the same day NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addressed a joint session of Congress ahead of NATO’s 70th anniversary, which is today.

“NATO is indispensable to America’s past, present, and future,” said Rep. Mark Green. “This bill would encourage our allies to fully fund our alliance, so that together we can preserve, strengthen and potentially expand NATO.”

The congressman tweeted, “I am looking forward to #NATO Sec Gen Stoltenberg’s address to Congress at 11. NATO is indispensable to America’s past, present, and future. That’s why I’m intro’ing a bill today that’d encourage our allies to fully fund our alliance and strengthen NATO.”

The act is meant to strengthen American alliances by requiring the U.S. Department of Defense to resume providing a report on valuable information about the state of the common defense, Green’s office said. The report, initially mandated by the 1985 NDAA, would highlight contributions from all nations with whom the U.S. has Collective Defense Arrangements and, as later added into the report, the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The report was sent to Congress until 2004.

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Green said, “President Trump’s National Defense Strategy has correctly identified near-peers Russia and China as growing threats to our national interest. NATO and our other treaty alliances are critical to deterring their aggression as well as the ongoing threats by non-state actors. The goal of this legislation is to ensure these alliances remain strong and effective.”

The report would be submitted every year to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It would include the common defense contributions of NATO countries, GCC countries and other treaty allies – Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines and signatories of the Rio Treaty.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced identical legislation in the U.S. Senate on Monday.

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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “Mark Green” by Mark Green

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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