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National Security |
Defense &
National Security |
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Congress tries to wrap up spending deal |
Congressional negotiators are racing to strike a bipartisan deal on government funding for fiscal year 2023 this week, but they have a long way to go before they might put a bow on an omnibus before Christmas. We'll share where negotiations are and what's holding up a deal plus the latest push from lawmakers to send more aid to Ukraine, what happens after the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack sunsets and how the U.S. has helped counter destructive Russian cyberattacks amid the Ukraine war. This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I'm Ellen Mitchell. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here. |
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Lawmakers race toward Christmas deal on spending |
Lawmakers have until midnight on Friday to pass legislation to keep the government running or risk a shutdown. Short-term: Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) said from the chamber floor on Monday that Congress is headed for a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), this week, giving negotiators a likely extra week to try to hash out a larger compromise on billions in spending. "Members should be prepared to take quick action on a CR, a one-week CR, so we can give appropriators more time to finish a full funding bill before the holidays," Schumer said on Monday afternoon. Stalling out: Democratic negotiators had been expected to release new funding proposals as early as Monday after bipartisan spending talks appeared to stall last week. They said the bills were designed to attract bipartisan support in lieu of a larger spending deal, but the plans met immediate skepticism in the GOP, whose members said the bills had not been pre-approved by Republicans. "It might come out of the House, but it's going nowhere in the Senate," Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters last week, while writing off such bills as "absolutely" a waste of time. One issue: An issue Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) raised on Thursday is a conflict over whether veterans funding should be classified as non-defense discretionary spending. "The more we do for our veterans, which we should do, they want to take it out of other needs that we have for our judiciary, for our housing, for education, for food, for transportation, for energy," Pelosi said during a press conference. "So, if we're increasing veterans at the expense of our domestic agenda, then you see how challenging that is," she told reporters, while pushing for certain veterans funding to be considered "in their own category." How the Pentagon is impacted: "Both sides know what it would take for the Senate to pass a full-year government funding bill into law," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor on Monday. "[The] funding agreement would need to fully fund our national defense at the level written into the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] without lavishing extra funding beyond what President Biden even requested on the Democrats partisan domestic priorities," McConnell said. The House recently passed the $847 billion defense authorization bill. Democrats have hit at Republicans for pushing to bolster defense while insisting that domestic spending passed without GOP support in reconciliation bills over the past two years be factored into talks. Read the rest here. |
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MEMBERS FROM BOTH PARTIES URGE MORE US SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE |
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers who recently returned from Kyiv have put their support behind Ukrainian government requests for the U.S. to provide more air defense systems, munitions, drones and military training to the war-torn country. President Biden has asked Congress to pass legislation to provide about $37 billion in new U.S. assistance to Ukraine, but that request has come under criticism from some Republicans who have called for more accountability on funds spent there. Tipping the scale: Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who led the weekend trip, said the lawmakers believed that providing the funding to Ukraine would help it win the fight against Russia. He noted that the trip was his second following a visit in January, just before Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24. "What we have learned since then is that they are … able to fight for themselves," Gallego said in a call with reporters on Monday, adding that "if we give them the resources, they will win the fight." "And they're not just looking to win the fight today. They're also looking [at] how to win the future of Ukraine," he said. Unclear: Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed support for passing the new package, which comes on top of the nearly $40 billion provided by the U.S. since the invasion. But there's little clarity on when Congress will manage to pass such a bill with the GOP taking over the House in January and the two parties fighting over a larger spending deal for the next year. Read that story here. |
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Jan. 6 panel eyes new beginning with DOJ |
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is increasingly turning to the Department of Justice as a potential partner for carrying out its mission once the panel sunsets. The two investigative teams have at times been at odds over the last year and a half, with the panel rebuffing a request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to share transcripts of its interviews in May. A looming deadline: But as it stares down an end-of-the-year deadline, the committee's tune is changing toward something reminiscent of a high school yearbook: Let's keep in touch. "If they would want to talk to some of our investigators or members of the committee, I think part of our duties and our oath of office is that we have to cooperate. And I see that cooperation being ongoing," Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters on Thursday. Sharing is caring: "If they have a particular interest in a subject or a subject matter, then we will be as cooperative as we can with respect to sharing it." In the past, the committee has been more reticent to share its information with the department. An initial agreement was reached after the DOJ complained in court that the panel's failure to furnish the transcripts would "complicate" their investigation. A switch: But it turns out the panel never made good on the arrangement, with Thompson telling reporters earlier this month the committee changed its mind. "We never shared it," he said, adding later, "The committee just made a decision not to." Coming to an end: Any turf battle over transcripts is about to end with the Dec. 21 release of the committee's report. The panel plans to make public much of the evidence it has collected, including interviews and depositions with more than 1,000 witnesses. It will be the final official act of the committee, as its mandate ends with the release of its report. Read the full story here. |
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HOW THE US HAS HELPED COUNTER RUSSIAN CYBERATTACKS IN UKRAINE |
The U.S.'s increased efforts to assist Ukraine and other Eastern European countries in shoring up their cyber defenses amid Moscow's war on Kyiv appear to have been successful in countering destructive Russian cyberattacks and mitigating their impact. The U.S. and its European allies provided significant cyber expertise to Ukraine and other Eastern European nations prior to the war, but experts said those efforts seem to have increased following the invasion of Ukraine in February as the countries all geared up for Russian cyberattacks. Lately: In recent months, U.S. agencies such as the FBI and the U.S. Cyber Command have reported that they've sent out cybersecurity experts to help countries including Croatia and Montenegro bolster their defenses against Russian cyberattacks. Most recently, the U.S. Cyber Command confirmed that it had deployed operators known as the "hunt forward" team for the first time in Croatia to help the Balkan country strengthen its cyber defenses and networks against active threats. Hunting party: "It was an honor to send some of our best defensive operators to Croatia, to hunt for shared threats alongside our partners — we want to bring both expertise and talent to our partner nations, while seeing cyber adversaries who may be threatening our nation," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Hartman, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command's Cyber National Mission Force, in a press release. The hunt forward team, a defensive cyber group made of U.S. military and civilian personnel, said it worked alongside Croatian intelligence and cybersecurity officials to look for malicious activity and vulnerabilities. The U.S. Cyber Command said it often sends the team overseas to help allies bolster their cybersecurity defenses and gather intelligence on adversaries' cyber activities. Read more here. |
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- The State Department will kick off its three-day 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit at 8 a.m.
- The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host a virtual discussion on "The NATO alliance and the road to the 2023 Vilnius Summit," with U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO Julianne Smith, at 9 a.m.
- The German Marshall Fund of the U.S. will hold a virtual talk on "EU-Turkey in Central Asia: Scope for Cooperation?" at 9 a.m.
- The House Homeland Security Intelligence and Counterterrorism subcommittee will hold a hearing on "Examining the Operations of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis," with Kenneth Wainstein, Homeland Security undersecretary for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, at 10 a.m.
- The Hill will hosts an event on "Risk to Resilience: Cyber and Climate Solutions Bolstering America's Power Grid," with Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), and Puesh Kumar, director of the Energy Department's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response at 10:30 a.m.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken will deliver remarks at a reception for African innovators as part of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit at the State Department at 6:30 p.m.
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That's it for today! Check out The Hill's Defense and National Security pages for the latest coverage. See you tomorrow! |
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