After a tough fight over raising the country’s debt limit – one which is still showing signs of fallout for House Republican leadership – members of Congress are starting to focus on the next spending battle: the annual defense budget.

What You Need To Know

  • The House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday will begin considering the annual defense spending bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act

  • The latest budget standoff comes after a tough fight between the White House and members of Congress over a bill to raise the debt limit

  • While the debt limit bill made spending cuts, it did not go far enough for some far-right Republicans, who staged a rebellion on the House floor last week by blocking a procedural vote on GOP-backed bills and brought proceedings in the lower chamber to a halt

  • The nearly weeklong blockade appeared to come to an end on Monday night after McCarthy and several hardline members of his conference announced a deal to move forward on some legislation

The House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday will begin considering the must-pass legislation, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, which funds the Pentagon’s budget and expenditures annually.

The process is in very early stages but was postponed amid the debt ceiling negotiations. The final bill, an agreement between President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suspended the country’s debt limit in exchange for some spending cuts and other measures favored by House Republicans, who hold a narrow majority in the lower chamber.

But the bill did not go far enough for some far-right Republicans, who staged a rebellion on the House floor last week by blocking a procedural vote on GOP-backed bills and brought proceedings in the lower chamber to a halt.

The nearly weeklong blockade appeared to come to an end on Monday night after McCarthy and several hardline members of his conference announced a deal to move forward on some legislation.

“We aired our issues,” South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman said. “We want to see this move forward as a body.”

“The floor will be functioning this week,” said Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, another far-right House Republican.

The far-right Republicans are seeking to bolster their influence on the House majority. With a slim majority in the chamber, House GOP leaders need every vote they can get to pass legislation.

“We want to work on an accountability regime and a power-sharing agreement,” said Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. “We want to see House conservatives in a position to be able to enforce the agreements that we all make.”

But McCarthy signaled that no such power-sharing agreement was formalized.

“I don’t know that there’s anything in writing here,” he told reporters. “The only thing we agreed to is we’ll sit down and talk more about the process.”

The group of rebels also did not rule out future shutdowns, potentially as soon as next week.

“If there's not a renegotiated power sharing agreement, then perhaps we'll be back here next week," Gaetz said, adding: "That's not our goal. Our goal is to continue to build off the momentum of this discussion.”

Defense spending was a key sticking point in negotiations on the debt limit bill, which was signed into law earlier this month to avoid a first-ever U.S. default. The bill limits overall defense spending to $886 billion next year, a 3% increase from current spending levels, and $895 billion in 2025.

Republicans in the Senate, including GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have said the level of defense spending set by the bill is “insufficient” and are pushing for a supplemental measure to boost Pentagon funding, something Speaker McCarthy has staunchly opposed.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the key GOP lawmakers calling for increase defense spending, lamented that “there’s not a dime in [the debt limit bill] for Ukraine.”

Such disagreements could spill over into negotiations over the annual defense spending bill. Last year’s NDAA was $70 billion less than this year’s projection.

The previous bill included a nearly 5% pay raise for service members and provided increased aid to both Ukraine and Taiwan. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is among the lawmakers sounding the alarm this year on the threat China poses to the U.S., particularly after several recent close calls in the air and sea near Taiwan.

“I think we have got to prioritize countering China in Asia,” Hawley told Spectrum News, charging that “what we're doing right now with Ukraine and Europe is a total distraction.”

“It is distracting and siphoning off our arms, our equipment, our manpower that needs to be going to Asia so we can make sure we are in a position to defend ourselves,” he added.

On Monday, the State Department acknowledged that China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since 2019, just 90 miles south of the United States. Earlier this year, the U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon after it flew over sensitive military installations.

Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who also serves on the House Armed Services panel, says he too sees China as a big priority for this defense spending bill.

“[Chinese President] XI Jinping says he's willing to start a war over Taiwan,” Moulton told Spectrum News. “We don't want that to happen, and the best way to do that is making sure our forces are prepared in the Pacific and modernized to meet the emerging threats, including a rapidly modernizing Chinese military.”

Hawaii Rep. Jill Tokuda, a member of the committee, told Spectrum News that her focus in the negotiations is to ensure that the bill is "very people-centered."

"It's going to be infrastructure talks," Tokuda said. "It's going to be about ships and planes and a lot of different things, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to people. People make the difference on our ability to really be able to be secure and ready, when it comes to defending our ideals, our values and our country. That's really my focus going into these negotiations in the next few weeks."

"Especially back home in Hawaii, where the military, the Department of Defense is present on all of our islands in one way, shape, or form, it's really essential that we know where those resources and supports are going," she added.