Salons send dueling letters to Prez

President Biden’s budget proposal for the Defense Department is tentatively scheduled to be released in May. In the interim, two groups of lawmakers have sent dueling letters to the White House. A group of “progressive” House members are pushing for cuts to that defense while a bipartisan letter from Group 2 – led by lawmakers from Mississippi and Maine – are arguing for a bigger Navy, and a boost to shipbuilding. Fifty Democrats sent a letter to the President on March 16 arguing for a decreased budget for the Pentagon. Bloomberg News and Politico reported Biden’s proposal would be between $704B and $708B. The bipartisan letter, primarily from Maine and Mississippi senators, was signed by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Angus King (I-Maine), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.); and Reps. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine). The letter also specifically asks the Navy to keep buying Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and their successor (DDG(X)). General Dynamics Bath (Maine) Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., both build those destroyers. Among the Democrat signees calling for a decrease in funding were Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), the only member of the House Armed Services Committee to sign the letter, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). No members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee signed the letter. (Source: USNI News 03/16/21) Dual Letters From Congress Signal Hill Headed for Defense Spending Showdown - USNI News