WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01), Vice Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, released the following statement in response to President Biden’s FY23 budget request:
“The Biden administration's requested defense budget for Fiscal Year 2023 does not reflect the threats facing our nation, the enormously damaging impacts of inflation on the purchasing power of the US military, or an investment in the ships, aircraft, vehicles, and additional capabilities that our servicemembers must use today.
“The President's requested defense toplines of $773 billion for the Department of Defense and $813 billion for all national defense programs fails to reflect a 5 percent increase over FY22 enacted levels--the level of defense spending that would begin to demonstrate a genuine commitment to our national security, and reflect the rapid deterioration of our international security environment since the publication of the 2018 National Defense Strategy. Russia has demonstrated its willingness to violently invade the sovereign state of Ukraine and enact tremendous suffering on its people, China continues to accelerate the expansion of its military forces, little progress has been made to deter North Korea, and Iranian aggression escalates by the day.
“I am particularly disappointed that even as we aim to grow our naval and projection forces, this budget continues the divest to invest strategy that will shrink our fleet once again, underinvest in the fifth generation fighters we need to compete with peer adversaries, reduces our Air Force tanker force structure and once again prioritizes future technologies over the capacity and capabilities servicemembers need now to ensure we have a credible American military. I will work with my colleagues in Congress this year to ensure that we deliver a defense budget that genuinely invests in the national security of our nation.”
