Pentagon Chief Defends $715 Billion Budget GOP Calls Inadequate
- Austin cites ‘probably the largest-ever’ investment in R&D
- Republican Rogers says U.S. risks losing ‘competitive edge’
Source: United States Marine Corp/Getty Images
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The Pentagon’s $715 billion budget proposal is sufficient to meet threats from a rising China to climate change and future pandemics, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Thursday, even as Republicans called it insufficient.
A day ahead of the formal submission of President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion government-wide spending plan for fiscal 2022, a hearing before the House Defense Appropriations panel provided the first official debate over the proposed Defense Department budget. It would be 1.6% more than the $704 billion enacted for this year but would amount to a decrease of about 0.4% in real terms adjusted for inflation.