Week ahead: Congress awaits new defense budget request

Lawmakers are returning to Washington Monday after their weeklong President’s Day recess and could get their first look at a supplemental budget request for defense.

In a Jan. 31 memo, Defense Secretary James Mattis directed the Pentagon to have the request to the Office of Management and Budget by March 1, which is this coming Wednesday.

But House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said recently that Congress also asked to receive the budget request that day, and he was optimistic it would happen.

“A number of us have made the point to the Pentagon that things are going to be — well, two — one is that the fiscal year is marching ahead, and so to have any hope of spending the money efficiently, we need to get it done quickly,” Thornberry told reporters before the recess. “And secondly, [fiscal] ’18 is backing up here, the next year. So we have encouraged them to get that to us by March 1. Now, I can’t tell you they’re going to make it exactly, but we have encouraged them and got a pretty positive response.”

{mosads}A staffer for the committee said Friday he didn’t have an update on whether the supplemental request will definitely come next week.

The supplemental request is meant to address “urgent warfighting readiness shortfalls” and new requirements created by accelerating the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to Mattis’s memo.

The defense community is watching a number of key dates on the calendar.

Thornberry also said he expects the committee’s markup of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act to come in May in the “best case scenario.”

Another deadline looming in the coming week is the end of the 30-day counter-Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) strategy review ordered by President Trump. The Pentagon said this week that it will meet the deadline to submit its review.

Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford played it close to his chest this week on what details will be in the new plan, but he said the military will present Trump with a “full range” of options. Meanwhile, Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, said that more troops may be headed to Syria.

Back on the Capitol Hill, committees have a full hearing schedule.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on Iraq after the battle for Mosul at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 419. http://bit.ly/2l8nEsB

A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee will hold a hearing on China’s maritime push at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2172. http://bit.ly/2lBNSY4

Another Foreign Affairs subcommittee will have a hearing on the western hemisphere at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Rayburn 2200. http://bit.ly/2mfSN2z

A House Armed Services Committee subpanel will have a hearing on the inspector general’s recent report on Central Command intelligence at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Rayburn 2118. http://bit.ly/2kUKlpc

The full committee will have a hearing on cyber warfare at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Rayburn 2118. http://bit.ly/2kUOkSy

A House Armed Services subcommittee will hold a hearing on ground forces and modernization in Eastern Europe at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Rayburn 2212. http://bit.ly/2lBG0pA

Another subcommittee will hold a hearing on military review board agencies at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Rayburn 2118. http://bit.ly/2mtcO1t

The Senate Armed Services Committee will have a hearing on cyber strategy at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Hart Senate Office Building, room 216. http://bit.ly/2mtlhBU

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