Latest news with #KenCalvert
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House appropriators OK rebukes to recent DOD scandals in budget bill
House Republican appropriators agreed Thursday to several checks on recent controversial Pentagon moves in their $832 billion defense budget plan for fiscal 2026, including a ban on using any money for military personnel to conduct law enforcement duties on U.S. soil. But the spending plan still drew significant criticism from Democratic lawmakers who objected to restrictions on abortion care for troops, insufficient funds to support Ukraine and missing budget justifications from the administration on how hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent. The funding bill — which heads to the full chamber for consideration later this summer — includes a 3.8% pay raise for troops in 2026 and plans to trim 45,000 civilian employees from the department's workforce in a cost-cutting move. Administration officials have billed it as the first $1 trillion defense budget, pairing the appropriations request with an expected $150 billion funding boost for military programs in the Republican-backed reconciliation package winding through Congress. Without that money, the defense budget would see no increase from fiscal 2025 levels. House panel pushes ahead $453 billion funding plan for VA next year In a statement Thursday, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., chairman of the appropriations committee's defense panel, praised the funding plan as 'investing significantly in modernization of the force, maintaining U.S. maritime and air dominance, fostering both innovation and the production capacity it relies upon, air and missile defense, and support for service members and their families.' But he also acknowledged Democratic complaints about incomplete funding requests from the administration, and said he hopes those information gaps will be filled in coming weeks. The committee approved the bill largely along party lines (only one Democrat, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, voted for it) after more than eight hours of debate and delays, with numerous Democratic amendments rejected by the GOP majority. But Republicans did go along with several provisions touching on recent department controversies. Language offered by Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., and approved by the committee would block the use of funds to skirt the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of military personnel for civilian law enforcement. The provision came in response to the Trump administration's recent decision to deploy National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to help with immigration enforcement efforts, over the objections of city and state officials. Calvert and other Republicans backed the measure without offering any direct criticism of President Donald Trump's decision. The committee also approved a Democratic-led amendment to block defense officials from sharing classified information on unsecured networks, a measure aimed at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the privately-owned Signal app earlier this year to discuss overseas airstrikes with senior administration leaders. And the legislation calls for a full accounting of money spent on the Army' 250th anniversary celebrations, scheduled for this weekend. The event — which coincides with Trump's 79th birthday — has seen its size and scope balloon by tens of millions of dollars as White House officials have mandated a larger and larger celebration. Other Democratic-led proposals on restricting Trump's use of a Qatari plane as the new Air Force One, blocking the renaming of Navy ships and returning to previous policies allowing travel stipends to help pay for abortion-related care were all rejected. Republicans also included language in the final bill which would block any diversity and inclusion programming at the Defense Department and severely limit health care options for transgender troops or family members, both priorities of the administration. Earlier this week, Senate Republicans expressed stronger concerns about the missing budget information, but said they hope to move soon on their own version of the defense spending package. Both chambers will have to adopt their own drafts of the appropriations measures before negotiating a final budget compromise to be sent to the president to become law.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Panel advances defense budget despite missing details from White House
House appropriators on Tuesday advanced plans for a $831.5 billion defense budget for next fiscal year over concerns from Democratic lawmakers that the spending package is rushed and incomplete, since the White House still has not unveiled its own detailed funding plans for the military. The appropriations bill topline essentially matches spending levels from the current fiscal year, leaving defense programs without any increase for inflation or cost-of-living hikes in the base budget plan. However, the funding plan is designed to run alongside congressional reconciliation plans, which would add another $150 billion in funds for the Defense Department. Republicans assert the combination could bring total military spending for next year to nearly $1 trillion, even though those funds would be spread out over four years. '[This bill] provides the resources necessary for maintaining American military superiority, leveraging our technological innovation into tactical advantages on the battlefield, and supporting the Defense Department's most valuable assets: our warfighters,'said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel. Trump requests $892.6 billion base defense budget, a real-terms cut 'Together, with the significant defense funding advancing through Congress as part of the reconciliation process, the FY26 bill … [represents] a historic commitment to strengthening and modernizing America's national defense.' The measure calls for a 3.8% pay raise, eliminates 45,000 civilian defense jobs and allocates $13 billion to start the White House's proposed Golden Dome missile defense program. But Democratic lawmakers said the legislation — which could advance to the full chamber for approval later this month — still has too many gaps to support because the White House is months behind in its promise to provide a detailed budget to Congress. 'We have zip, nada, no idea where we are going,' Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a hearing before Tuesday's subcommittee vote. 'Give us the details … My hope was that we could get to it before a markup.' Hegseth said those details will be sent to lawmakers soon, but he also supported the committee moving ahead with the broad outlines of the defense spending plan. '[The president's plan] realigns the military to the historic strength that began in President Donald Trump's first term and makes generational investments in the president's priorities including developing the Golden Dome, sealing the Southwest Border, investing in the F-47, revitalizing our shipbuilding industry,' he told lawmakers. The 3.8% pay raise matches the federal formula for the recommended annual military pay raise, a calculation that Congress has followed most years for the last two decades. The formula is based on changes in wages for the civilian workforce and is designed to ensure that military paychecks don't lag behind compensation for other industries. Military pay has increased by at least 2% every year since 2017, and troops have seen a pay increase annually since the 1970s. Last January, that military pay raise was 4.5%. In addition, Congress approved a targeted pay raise for junior enlisted service members that went into effect on April 1, raising their paychecks by up to 10%. For junior enlisted troops, a 3.8% raise in 2026 would mean about $1,200 more in take-home pay. For senior enlisted and junior officers, the raise would add about $2,500 more to their annual paychecks. An O-4 with 12 years of service would see almost $4,300 more over 2025 pay levels. The pay increase will cost more than $6 billion next year, taking up nearly all of the planned increase in the appropriations bill's personnel account hike. As a result, other procurement accounts are being held flat or losing funding, potentially cutting other equipment and modernization priorities. The appropriations bill also projects $662 million in savings from 'slowing permanent change of station moves,' although specifics of that plan were not released by the committee. Democrats also objected to policy provisions in the bill blocking service personnel from traveling across state lines to seek reproductive health care, including abortion services. During former President Joe Biden's term in office, the department helped cover the cost of such trips, calling it a force readiness issue. Senate appropriators — both Republicans and Democrats — on Tuesday raised concerns about missing details from the White House's defense budget plan. That chamber is expected to unveil its appropriations draft of the military budget for next year in the next few weeks.
E&E News
10-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
House unveils Defense spending bill with cleanup cuts
House Republicans' Defense appropriations bill would decrease the Pentagon's spending on environmental restoration while boosting overseas disaster assistance. The fiscal 2026 Defense bill, unveiled Monday, proposes to keep military funding flat relative to the current level of $831.5 billion. Republicans want to add an additional $150 billion or more through their party-line reconciliation bill. Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) said in a statement the bill provides the resources necessary for 'maintaining American military superiority, leveraging our technological innovation into tactical advantages on the battlefield, and supporting the Defense Department's most valuable assets — our warfighters.' Advertisement Calvert's subcommittee will mark up the bill in a closed session Tuesday, with a full committee markup scheduled for Thursday. Democrats could protest the relatively little climate-focused funding in the bill.
Bloomberg
10-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Key Congressman Questions Hegseth Decision to Slash Test Office
A top House Republican who oversees Pentagon spending expressed surprise and concern about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's order last month to slash nearly half the staff of the Pentagon's test oversight agency, even as the US embarks on major military initiatives including the F-47 fighter and the Golden Dome defensive system. 'This decision is surprising, especially at a time when the test and evaluation community was in the early stages of transforming to meet unprecedented production and fielding requirements,' Representative Ken Calvert of California, chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, told Bloomberg News in a statement.
India Today
05-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Indian-American lawyer running for the US House of Representatives in California
Indian-American civil rights attorney Anuj Dixit is running for the US House of Representatives in California's 41st congressional district, aiming to contest Republican incumbent Ken Calvert. Dixit accused Congressman Calvert of not working for the middle-class and said he is contesting "to give them a voice".Dixit, who was born to immigrant parents from India, said he is running for Congress to shake up a system that's been rigged for decades by insiders like Congressman Ken Calvert by bringing fresh energy and bold ideas to make Washington work for the middle-class, such as making it easier to start a business, find a good-paying job, and help more Americans progress in said he would lead the charge in going after big businesses that "buy elections and dodge taxes". He also said he would fight to cut middle-class taxes and make California more affordable, as per his website. "In the 30 years since Ken Calvert went to Congress, Washington stopped working for the middle-class," Dixit announced his campaign, emphasising promoting economic grew up on March Air Force Base in Riverside County. His father is a six-year veteran of the US Air DIXIT LOST GRANDPARENTS IN LOCKERBIE BOMBINGAccording to his website, he lost his grandparents, aunt, and cousins in the Pan Am 103 (Lockerbie) bombing in 1988 and came of age in the shadow of 9/ Indian American Impact Fund (IAIF), which supports Indian-American and South Asian political candidates, has announced its endorsement of thrilled to endorse Anuj Dixit, a fierce advocate for democracy and opportunity. Anuj understands the challenges faced by working and middle-class families because he's lived them — and he's spent his career fighting for the rights and dignity of others," said Chintan Patel, executive director of the the campaign trail, Dixit helps run his family's health clinic, which provides essential care to patients in the community. He is a graduate of UCLA and Columbia Law School, The American Bazar, a Maryland-based news portal, election is scheduled for November 3, 2026.
