Report
21 May 2010
Wednesday night the House Armed Services Committee marked up and unanimously passed its version of the defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2011. This bill is expected to go to the House floor next week and a Senate Armed Services Committee mark-up of the companion bill is also scheduled for next week. However, during the mark-up process, the committee placed a number of hurdles in the way of crucial administration national security priorities on foreign policy and the defense budget. For example, it included language harmful to the goal of closing the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay, despite the fact that military and national security experts agree that keeping it open hampers American national security. In addition, despite the tight overall budget, the committee inserted funding to continue the development of a second, alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - an expense that the Pentagon has rejected as an "unnecessary luxury," as America's defense budget priorities remain in need of serious reform. While the overall bill provides a strong basis for achieving American national security goals, it is crucial that Congress pay heed to the bipartisan consensus on these national security issues and that it fixes the bill to achieve America's foreign policy and budgetary priorities.
Report
10 May 2010
Common sense and discipline are the historic values to which American Presidents have aspired when providing for the common defense. In an address at the Eisenhower Library in Kansas, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke about the urgent need to return to those qualities, after years in which Pentagon spending spiraled out of control. Gates's speech comes against the backdrop of concern with the state of the American economy, mounting calls from Congress and budget experts for fiscal discipline, and recognition from the Obama administration and outside experts of the need to rebalance the contributions of defense, diplomacy and development to American national security.
News
Politico 4 February 2010
Report
1 February 2010
Today's double release of the Obama administration's 2011 budget request and the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) represents an opening salvo in the administration's move to establish a fully-integrated approach to national security. These are ambitious goals, particularly at a time when the U.S. is facing unprecedented economic restraints. More broadly, the QDR is a positive step in what must ultimately be a sustained effort to correct an imbalance that saw our diplomatic and development corps wither because of disproportionate emphasis on military solutions.
Report
28 October 2009
This afternoon, President Obama signs into law the first Defense Budget that matches the threats and security imperatives of the 21st century. As Secretary of Defense Gates has said, the military needs to fight today's battles, not yesterday's. By signing this 21st century Defense Budget into law, President Obama is taking a major step forward in bringing our defense priorities in line with current threats. This is a major victory for the progressive national security agenda.
Report
26 June 2009
The White House issued its first veto threat yesterday, telling members of Congress that the president would not approve a defense budget containing wasteful Cold War-era weapons. President Obama and Secretary Gates are attempting to move the Pentagon in a direction that better prepares and equips our forces for both the challenges they are in and the 21st century challenges they are most likely to confront. After eight years of the Bush administration not making any tough choices, the Obama administration has laid out a strategy, set its priorities, and is making the tough tradeoffs.
Report
15 May 2009
In a tremendous departure from Rumsfeld, Secretary Gates’ first priority has been to ensure that the troops on the ground get all the equipment and resources they need to do their jobs. Through his focus on the immediate challenges of the current wars, Gates hopes to rebalance the military, better positioning it to address both the conventional and irregular threats of the 21st century.
Report
11 May 2009
After eight years of reckless saber-rattling and an almost exclusive focus on the military – conservatives still oppose reasonable and tough diplomacy.
Report
8 May 2009
The President’s 2010 defense budget marks the beginning of a strategic shift that attempts to offer a new vision for the 21st century, institutionalize the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, and attack inefficiency and waste. The conservative response – instead of engaging in a forward –looking debate – clung to an approach that is rooted both in the Cold War and in the discredited vision of former Secretary Rumsfeld.
Report
30 April 2009
Over the last eight years the defense acquisition process has deteriorated dramatically. 95 percent of the Pentagon’s major weapons programs are running two years behind schedule and $300 billion over budget.
