Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the defense spending levels part of the new debt limit law are “totally inadequate” and questioned how to move forward on Wednesday after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) poured cold water on the Senate’s hope for a supplemental defense bill.
“I supported the McCarthy-Biden deal, but I was not happy with the defense number,” McConnell said during a press conference with reporters on Wednesday. “The defense number is totally inadequate to meet the challenges that we have in Asia, not to mention Ukraine. I’m not sure right now how to fix it, but it’s a problem. It’s a serious problem that hopefully we’ll find some way over the course of the year to address.”
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McCarthy said Monday he would not entertain an effort to get around the $886 billion defense cap specified in the debt-limit bill. This comes after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and McConnell agreed to demands for a supplemental defense bill for Ukraine later this year, in exchange for the senators to raise the debt limit.
The debt limit bill limits overall national security spending in fiscal 2024 to $886 billion, which is roughly a 3% increase from current levels. In fiscal 2025, defense spending would be capped at $895 billion, a 1% increase from the previous year. The cuts have been a point of contention for defense hawks who continue to advocate spending increases to deter Chinese aggression.
McConnell did not answer questions from reporters about whether he has spoken directly with McCarthy about his comments but said, “Defense is radically underfunded, related to the Chinese threat, and Ukraine will probably need additional assistance.”
“Figuring out how to do this is going to be a challenge,” McConnell added.
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Republican senators have some time to convince their House counterparts to get on board with boosting the defense numbers. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) thinks the Pentagon should have enough funding for Ukraine to last through August or September.
“That’s a lot of time to educate members,” Tillis said to reporters on Tuesday, referring to the need to boost spending levels.