Overnight Defense: Mattis says authority for North Korea action limited to ‘imminent’ threats | Corker vows to take up new war measure soon | CBO puts $1.2T price tag on updating nuclear triad
THE TOPLINE: President Trump does not have authority to use military force in North Korea outside of an imminent threat, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told lawmakers Monday.
But they declined to define what they consider an imminent threat to be.
Mattis and Tillerson were testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the issue of authorization for the use of military force (AUMF).
Committee ranking member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) asked the pair if they agree there is no congressional authorization for the use of force in North Korea.
{mosads}
“I understand the president’s authorities under Article II. There’s an imminent threat against the United States, he has certain powers. But as far as congressional authorization, there is no authorization. Is that correct?” Cardin asked.
Tillerson replied: “That’s my understanding, yes.”
“I believe the president has Article II, you know, authority only,” Mattis added.
The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has more here.
Mattis also told Congress Monday that the U.S. soldiers killed in Niger earlier this month were not operating under the war authorization passed in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.
Following the hearing, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) committed to marking up a new war authorization.
“The next step most logically is to attempt to move to a mark up and to actually try to pass an [authorization for the use of military force] out of committee,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Corker told reporters after the hearing with Mattis and Tillerson.
Asked when the mark up will be, Corker said he and ranking member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) are discussing it, but predicted it will be “fairly soon.”
DEMS TOUT BILL AIMED AT PREVENTING PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE ON N. KOREA: A trio of Democratic senators on Tuesday urged their colleagues to take President Trump’s threats against North Korea seriously as they pushed a bill that attempts to rein in his ability to strike the country without congressional authorization.
“It’s time that we start taking President Trump seriously when he repeatedly threatens military action against North Korea,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters on a conference call. “He’s made his enthusiasm for a military strike on the Korean Peninsula very clear over and over again.”
Murphy announced on Twitter last week that he would introduce a bill to bar Trump from launching a pre-emptive strike on North Korea without congressional authorization.
On Tuesday, Murphy made good on the promise and talked up the bill to reporters along with Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), two of six co-sponsors.
The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has more here.
The bill comes as up to 200 North Korean workers are suspected killed in a tunnel collapse at the country’s nuclear test site, according to a Japanese news report Tuesday.
CBO SAYS UPDATING, SUSTAINING NUCLEAR TRIAD WOULD COST $1.2T OVER 30 YEARS: Modernizing and maintaining the United States’ nuclear arsenal would cost $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a Tuesday report.
The CBO found that to update or buy new versions of the land, air and sea components of the nuclear triad and sustain them would cost 50 percent more than operating and sustaining alone.
The report includes nine options that could be pursued to lower or delay the costs of planned modernization, including reducing the number of deployed warheads.
The CBO’s is the first official independent assessment of what it would cost to sustain and modernize America’s aging nuclear weapons.
MILITARY COMMANDER SAYS 4K TROOPS IN SYRIA, THAN BACKTRACKS: A top military official on Monday said more than 4,000 U.S. troops are in Syria, then quickly retracted the figure when it was pointed out the Pentagon officially insists only 503 troops are deployed on the ground there.
“We have approximately … I think it’s a little over 4,000 U.S. troops in Syria right now” supporting efforts against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Army Maj. Gen. James Jarrard told Pentagon reporters from Baghdad via satellite.
Jarrard — who heads the U.S.-led special operations task force responsible for defeating ISIS — quickly backtracked when asked to confirm the 4,000-troop figure.
“I’m sorry, I misspoke there, there are approximately 500 troops in Syria,” Jarrad said.
When pressed on the accuracy of the figure, the Pentagon spokesman running the briefing insisted the number was 503.
It’s known within defense circles that there are far more troops in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq than the Pentagon officially admits.
WATCHDOG CRITICIZES PENTAGON FOR MAKING AFGHAN DATA CLASSIFIED: The U.S. military has made classified data about the progress of Afghan forces that was previously public, the top U.S. watchdog for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan said Tuesday.
In its latest quarterly report, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the classification of information related to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) will hinder its oversight mission.
“In a significant development this quarter, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) classified or otherwise restricted information SIGAR has until now publicly reported. These include important measures of ANDSF performance such as casualties, personnel strength, attrition, capability assessments, and operational readiness of equipment,” John Sopko, the special inspector general, wrote in an introduction to the report.
“More than 60% of the approximately $121 billion in U.S. funding for reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002 has gone to build up the ANDSF, so the increased classification of ANDSF data will hinder SIGAR’s ability to publicly report on progress or failure in a key reconstruction sector,” he said.
Sopko added information about the performance of Afghan forces was previously classified in 2015, but declassified days after SIGAR released its quarterly report calling out the restriction.
MCCAIN: WE MUST FIGHT ‘PROPAGANDA AND CRACKPOT CONSPIRACY THEORIES’: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took aim at the current political environment, including veiled swipes at President Trump, during a speech on Monday night.
“We have to fight against propaganda and crackpot conspiracy theories. We have to fight isolationism, protectionism and nativism. We have to defeat those who would worsen our divisions,” McCain said at the Brigade of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman added that “we have to remind our sons and daughters that we became the most powerful nation on earth by tearing down walls, not building them.”
McCain, who has been diagnosed with brain cancer, didn’t directly name Trump during his speech, which was largely focused on serving the country. But his remarks mirrored some of his criticism of the administration and a strain of nationalism embodied by Trump’s campaign rhetoric.
Read more about the speech here.
ON TAP FOR TOMORROW:
The Center for New American Security will hold an “Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Summit” with the chair of the Defense Innovation Advisory Board starting at 9:30 a.m. at 1152 15th St. NW in Washington.
The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold an open hearing on social media influence in the 2016 U.S. elections at 9:30 a.m. at the Hart Senate Office Building, room 216. They will hear from the top lawyers at Google, Facebook and Twitter.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on North Korea, with testimony from a high-ranking defector, at 10 a.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2172.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider the nominations for undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, U.S. ambassador to Lesotho, U.S. ambassador to Namibia, U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg and chief of protocol at 10 a.m. at Dirksen 419.
A House Appropriations subcommittee will hear from U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green on accountable soft power in the national interest at 10 a.m. in a webcast event.
The House Oversight subcommittee on national security will hold a hearing on the overview of 16 years of involvement in Afghanistan at 10 a.m. in Rayburn 2154.
The House Intelligence Committee’s Russia Investigative task force will hear from the general counsels for Google, Facebook and Twitter at 2 p.m. in the House Visitor Center, room 210.
ICYMI:
— The Hill: Qatar agrees to crack down on terrorism financing following Mnuchin visit
— The Hill: Roy Moore: Impeach judge blocking transgender military ban
–The Hill: Kelly: I’ll ‘never’ apologize to Dem lawmaker over Gold Star phone call
— The Hill: Bergdahl apologizes in court for actions in Afghanistan
— The Hill: Opinion: Congress can’t play dumb about US troops in Niger by Brian P. McKeon
–The Hill: Opinion: Congress must know about special operations before tragedy strikes
by Lora Lumpe and Jacob Marx
— Reuters: Assad sets sights on Kurdish areas, risking new Syria conflict
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