U.S. soldiers assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, set up a Howitzer at Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, Romania, May 1, 2025. The U.S. Army command in Europe said Wednesday the division’s 2nd Brigade will not be replaced as it nears the end of its nine-month deployment to Romania. (Nathan Arellano Tlaczani/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — The Republican chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Wednesday condemned the Pentagon’s plan to draw down American troop levels in Romania, saying the decision was made without consultation with lawmakers and threatened to undermine deterrence against Russia.
In a joint statement, Rep. Mike Rogers, of Alabama, and Sen. Roger Wicker, of Mississippi, said they “strongly” opposed the move to discontinue a rotational U.S. Army brigade to Romania and were seeking clarification from the Pentagon on how it planned to mitigate the impact of the decision.
The U.S. Army command in Europe said Wednesday the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade will not be replaced as it nears the end of its nine-month deployment to Romania and other countries in the Black Sea region. The pullback comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks to shift the military’s focus to domestic security and competition with China.
Rogers and Wicker accused the Pentagon of unilaterally downsizing U.S. forces despite their appeals earlier in the year to coordinate any major posture changes with Congress. Defense policy legislation drafted by the House and Senate this year calls for a robust U.S. presence in Europe and stipulates that modifications must go through a review process.
“We stated that we will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the Joint Staff, and collaboration with Congress,” Rogers and Wicker said. “Unfortunately, this appears to be exactly what is being attempted.”
The lawmakers described Romania as a “strong ally” that spends heavily on defense and has made major investments to host American service members. Since 2016, the country has been home to the U.S. Navy’s Aegis Ashore missile defense system and accepted “substantial political, military and economic risk” to protect NATO allies and U.S. troops, the lawmakers noted.
A pullback of American forces from the region risks inviting further Russian aggression as Russia increasingly ventures into NATO airspace, according to Rogers and Wicker. Romania in September said it tracked a Russian drone flying through its airspace for 50 minutes.
“This decision … sends the wrong signal to Russia at the very moment President Trump is applying pressure to force Vladimir Putin to come to the table to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine,” the lawmakers said. “Unfortunately, the Pentagon’s decision appears uncoordinated and directly at odds with the President’s strategy.”
The chairmen said they will seek assurances from the Pentagon that the two armored brigades in Poland will remain in place and that the U.S. continues deploying rotational forces to Poland, Romania and the Baltics.
Nearly 84,000 American service members were stationed in Europe as of early 2025, according to U.S. European Command. In 2024, 14,000 troops were in Poland, 2,150 were in Romania, 1,000 were in Lithuania and 700 were in Estonia, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Romania’s defense minister said Wednesday that about 1,000 American troops in the country will stay on.
“The downsizing of the U.S. forces is an effect of the new priorities of the presidential administration,” Romania’s defense ministry said in a statement.
