The U.S. Department of Defense is being urged by members of Congress to develop a national security plan to address China’s interest and investments in seabed mining.
Virginia U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, led over two dozen legislators including fellow Rep. Jen Kiggans in sounding the alarm on China’s involvement in mining critical resources, such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, manganese and zinc from the seabed.
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Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana is pressuring the Air Force to conduct an investigation of text messages warning against attending a conservative rally, according to a letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A master sergeant at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota urged leaders to caution their troops about the potential for violence aimed at military members at a conservative rally or participating in the featured political advocacy group in leaked text messages on November 17, Fox News first reported. Banks, who chairs the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee and heads the chamber’s Anti-Woke Caucus, said the texts from an unidentified leader defamed a conservative organization and interfered in an Airman’s right to free assembly and the political process, the letter stated.
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Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez raised the alarm after 17 Chinese nationals were apprehended in Key Largo, which is inside his district.
“Florida Highway Patrol and U.S. Border Agents detained 17 Chinese nationals after illegally making landfall in Key Largo – my district,” Gimenez said on Thursday.
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The $886 billion defense spending bill that the GOP-led House is poised to vote on in the coming days is $26 billion more that the previous year, as the national debt climbs to $33 trillion.
The bill has received bipartisan votes in both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
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The Department of Defense has put a stop to a “child-friendly” drag show event slated for Thursday at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) declared the decision to cancel the drag show a “huge victory” in the wake of his demands for answers on why such shows on military installations are continuing despite statements to Gaetz during a House Armed Services Committee hearing by Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley that they were not aware such events were occurring and that they agree they should not be held.
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“We are probably not going to be able to do anything to stop, slow down, disrupt, interdict, or destroy the Chinese nuclear development program that they have projected out over the next 10 to 20 years,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on March 29 at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. “They’re going to do that in accordance with their own plan.”
Milley is wrong about China’s nuclear weapons ambitions. He is, unfortunately, expressing the same pessimism that pervaded the Nixon, Ford and Carter years, when the American foreign policy establishment took the Soviet Union as a given and therefore promoted détente.
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Most of Georgia’s congressional delegation voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including both Democratic senators, five out of six Democratic representatives, and five out of the eight Republican representatives. After the bill passed out of the Senate on Thursday, Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said the bill included his own legislation to help veterans access their service records, and Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) touted the inclusion of the Water Resource Development Act (WRDA), which includes $75 million in water infrastructure spending for rural and economically disadvantaged regions in Georgia.
“I’m so glad we were able to get this year’s NDAA over the finish line with tremendous bipartisan support. Georgia notched notable wins in this year’s defense package, including bolstering Georgia’s military bases, ensuring our state is a crucial component to our nation’s national defense for years to come and securing more affordable military housing for servicemembers and their families,” Warnock said in a press release.
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The House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with added funding after Virginia Representatives Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) and Elaine Luria (D-VA-02) blasted the administration’s original military spending proposals for not including a large enough budget and for planning to decommission some ships. Wittman was the only Virginia Republican voting in favor of the bill after the House Freedom Caucus criticized it the day before the vote.
After passage of the NDAA on Thursday, Wittman praised it in a press release: “In today’s increasingly divided political world, today’s passage of the NDAA is encouraging proof that Congress can still work together for the greater good of our nation. This year’s NDAA does right by our servicemembers and their families, reverses Biden’s reckless defense cuts, counteracts Biden’s harmful inflation, provides the resources we need to deter Chinese aggression, and protects our homeland.”
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The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) approved Wednesday a $37 billion military spending increase sponsored by Representatives Elaine Luria (D-VA-02) and Jared Golden (D-ME-02) with the support of HASC Vice-Ranking Member Rob Wittman (R-VA-01). Some of the proposed spending includes $1.2 billion for a new guided missile destroyer, about $7.4 billion to offset rising costs due to inflation, and $1 billion for more Patriot missile systems.
After the HASC approved the increase over President Joe Biden’s original National Defense Authorization Act proposal, Luria said in a release, “The bipartisan Golden-Luria amendment passed today will increase purchasing power and counter inflationary pressures on the military, invest in public and private shipyards crucial to maintaining the fleet, and ensures that we have the resources necessary to counter the threats we face from China, Iran, and Russia. This amendment sends a message to our adversaries that we will meet the moment when it arises, and I look forward to negotiating with the Senate on a final topline amendment number.”
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The U.S. military depends almost completely on China for a mineral essential to the production of ammunition and other defense products, Defense News reported Wednesday.
The House Armed Services Committee released draft legislation on Wednesday which would require a briefing on the antimony supply by October and a five-year outlook on supply chain vulnerabilities, Defense News reported. The U.S. has no domestic mine for the mineral antimony, which is reportedly used in the production of night vision goggles, armor-piercing bullets, explosives and nuclear weapons.
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Top American military leaders are set for another round of intense congressional grilling on Wednesday, following a day-long Tuesday session that at times featured blistering criticism of their part in the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.
The Tuesday hearing placed on the griddle Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; U.S. Central Command Chief Gen. Frank McKenzie; and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
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A major defense bill passed out of the House Armed Services Committee Thursday, with spending for Virginia. Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) said that Republicans led an effort to include an amendment that, in part protects three guided-missile cruisers based in Virginia from decommissioning. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 passed 57 to two. It includes a top-line spending level of $740 billion, up from President Joe Biden’s proposed $715 billion, according to Defense News.
“While defense is often and rightfully viewed as a national priority, here in Virginia, this additional funding fuels economic growth and the creation of jobs. This growth will further translate to funding for state priorities such as roads, schools, and law enforcement. With many of these ships built, maintained and repaired in Virginia, the Commonwealth’s economy especially stands to benefit from the passage of the FY22 NDAA,” Wittman said in a press release.
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Virginia’s congressional delegation, led by Congressman Rob Wittman (R-Virginia-01), is warning the Navy not to forget the East Coast and Norfolk Naval Shipyard as international military and commercial dynamics draw attention to China and Russia.
“As we pivot towards the Indo-Pacific in our global force posture, it comes as no surprise that we’ve bolstered our presence on our Western Seaboard through increases in homeported ships. This increased presence is of such magnitude that San Diego has eclipsed Norfolk in the sheer number of homeported ships,” the delegation wrote in a letter to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee’s Seventh District to the newsmakers line to discuss his bill which would outlaw the training of critical race theory in U.S. Military Academy and others.
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The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Armed Services Committee called the current National Guard deployment on Capitol Hill unwarranted.
Democratic Rep. Adam Smith and Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, the committee’s respective chairman and ranking member, asked the Department of Defense to implement a “measured drawdown” of the guardsmen stationed at the Capitol in a joint statement Thursday.
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U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) will serve on the House Armed Services Committee for the 117th Congress. This, according to a press release that Green’s staff posted on his website Monday.
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Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) sent a letter to Chairman Adam Smith and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry of the House Armed Services Committee asking them to fund Fort Campbell’s hospital after the base saw soldiers go to New York, New Jersey and Boston to help fight the coronavirus.
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U.S. Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee will join the subcommittees on Strategic Forces, as well as Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities, according to a press release Wednesday. The Strategic Forces Subcommittee oversees nuclear weapons, missile defense and space programs. The Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee oversees counter-terrorism, special operations, military intelligence and cyber issues, among other things, according to the press release. Texas Republican Congressman Mac Thornberry, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, announced subcommittee assignments for the new 116th Congress, according to the press release. DesJarlais will also serve on the House Agriculture Committee, per an announcement last week from Texas Republican Congressman Mike Conaway, the ranking member. In a statement, DesJarlais said this new assignment helps Tennessee. “Tennessee, especially the Fourth District, is a top producer of agriculture staples. It’s a major farming and ranching state, where the Walking Horse industry is prominent. Rural areas are also experiencing manufacturing growth, making demands on infrastructure,” DesJarlais said. “On the Agriculture Committee, I will have the opportunity to promote rural broadband and workforce development, because important skills are in short supply, and on the Armed Services Committee, I will be able to assist our many military members,…
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