WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representatives Mark Pocan (WI-02) and Barbara Lee (CA-13), Co-Chairs and Founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, sent a letter to President Biden urging him to resist pressures to increase defense spending in his Fiscal Year 2023 budget request.
“We support your strategic response to Russia so far, and we look forward to continuing to work with you in the pursuit of peace in the region. As you prepare your fiscal year 2023 budget request, we know some Members of Congress will seek an increase in defense spending. Respectfully, we ask that you do everything in your power to resist such increases,” the lawmakers wrote.
“You resisted calls for historic increases…in your first budget, and you requested $753 billion in defense spending. The U.S. House of Representatives more than doubled your desired increase and included $768.2 billion in the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act. Ultimately, in the omnibus appropriation legislation signed into law earlier this week, the new enacted defense spending level is $782 billion…” they continued. “Some of our colleagues will continue to seek virtually unlimited amounts of funding for the Department of Defense, no matter the Department’s own assessments of its needs for the coming fiscal year. This mission creep is dangerous to peace-seeking efforts, and it will continue to starve our domestic priorities of needed funding.”
Click here to read the letter as delivered.
