Republicans Warn Defense Increase Can’t Come at Domestic Expense
- Hal Rogers says Trump’s request is ‘politically impossible’
- Funds can’t be ‘on the back of non-defense,’ Calvert says
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Pro-Pentagon Republicans warned Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that the increase in defense spending proposed by President Donald Trump can’t come at the wholesale expense of domestic spending or the State Department.
In three days of congressional budget hearings, Mattis heard from lawmakers who wanted at least as much as Trump’s $574 billion plan for the base defense budget in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. That would exceed caps under the Budget Control Act of 2011 by $52 billion -- an amount the White House said would be offset by cuts in domestic discretionary programs and the State Department.