The U.S. Capitol seen through a window of the Cannon House Office Building. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — House appropriators on Monday released a draft of the defense budget that will give service members a 3.8% pay raise, reduce the civilian workforce by nearly 45,000 jobs and keep the Pentagon’s budget flat from 2025 to 2026.
The House Appropriations Committee’s defense subpanel is scheduled to vote on the measure Tuesday, shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before members in his first appearance on Capitol Hill since his confirmation.
The full panel will consider the bill Thursday, though the Defense Department has yet to provide Congress with its full budget request for fiscal 2026, which begins Oct. 1.
Republican appropriators are proposing $831.5 billion in spending for the Pentagon. The amount is equal to current funding levels, aggravating defense hawks.
House Republicans on Monday sought to portray the flat budget as a significant investment when coupled with an extra $150 billion for defense included in a Republican domestic policy bill moving through the Senate.
Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., the subcommittee chairman, said the two bills together would provide more than $1 trillion for the military, representing “a historic commitment to strengthening and modernizing America’s national defense.”
The appropriations measure would increase basic pay for all military personnel by 3.8%, continue pay raises for junior enlisted service members that began this year and slow permanent change of station moves to save more than $662 million.
It also codifies executive orders issued by President Donald Trump to end diversity and inclusion programs and prohibits funding for drag queen shows, the coronavirus vaccine and mask mandates, and travel subsidies for service members who need to cross state lines to obtain an abortion.
Democrats decried the legislation for putting forward “hateful, discriminatory” policies and said it will harm readiness by continuing the workforce cuts initiated by the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency group.
Republicans are proposing cutting 45,000 full-time civilian employees for a “more efficient and effective” Defense Department.
Democrats said they were especially alarmed the bill directs the Pentagon to determine $7.75 billion in cuts. The provision has the potential to reduce funding of nearly every program by 1%, the committee’s Democrats argued Monday, potentially cutting into troop pay.
“At a time when the Trump administration is already illegally stealing from American communities by refusing to spend funds, it is unfathomable that the [House] Appropriations Committee would allow the administration to unilaterally make nearly $8 billion in cuts to defense investments,” Democrats said.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the bill “acquiesces to Elon Musk’s and President Trump’s reckless purging of critical civilian personnel, their equivocation on support for Ukraine and their relentless politicizing of our troops.”
The legislation does not contain any money for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a longstanding program that has allowed Ukraine to purchase weapons directly from the American defense industry.
The bill instead gives precedence to other priorities.
About $13 billion would be allocated to support Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system, including more than $8.8 billion for Missile Defense Agency programs and $4.1 billion for the Space Force.
More than $1 billion will be spent on counter-drug programs — $245 million more than requested by the White House. Jurisdiction over Mexico would also be shifted from U.S. Northern Command to U.S. Southern Command under the legislation.
