At 1 a.m. Saturday morning, the House voted 344 to 76 to reject the amendment offered by Representatives Barbara Lee (CA) and Pete Stark (CA) that would have insisted that cuts to the Pentagon budget be a significant part of any effort to control deficit spending. Massachusetts Reps. Olver, McGovern, Frank, Tierney, Markey, and Capuano voted for this measure, but Reps. Neal, Tsongas, Lynch, and Keating voted no.
The Pentagon budget is one of the first places representatives should start if they are looking for ways to reduce wasteful spending. Military spending has doubled in the past ten years and the Pentagon has a history of enormous cost overruns. The Pentagon has also never had a full audit that makes it accountable to Congress and taxpayers.
The bad news is that a majority of representatives aren’t yet willing to substantively scale back this massive Pentagon budget, even though many of them support deep cuts in most other areas of federal spending.
The good news is that 76 members of Congress – including both Republicans and Democrats – have now gone on record in favor of Pentagon spending cuts. Your response to this vote can help to influence how your representative will act in the next two years when Pentagon spending cuts are proposed again. Please contact your Rep. with thanks if he voted yes or complaint if s/he voted no.
Background
House leaders are attempting to make sweeping cuts in federal government spending for the next six months (the rest of this fiscal year). The House “continuing resolution,” which passed Saturday, includes cuts in domestic spending, diplomacy, development, and international assistance but allows the Pentagon budget to continue to rise. The failure of the House to adopt amendments such as Rep. Stark’s means that this basic plan is unchanged.
Because it is still relatively early in the year, your opinion now will have an important impact on your representative. Even if your representative didn’t vote to cut Pentagon spending today, your letters might help her or him vote to cut Pentagon spending in the future.
In this fiscal climate, a wide range of legislators and leaders, including representative Eric Cantor (VA), senators Rand Paul (KY), and Tom Coburn (OK), and the members of the bipartisan Deficit Reduction Commission, have called for Pentagon cuts. On Wednesday, the House voted 233 to 198 to cut funding for a second engine for the F-35 fighter jet, despite strong support from the leadership in the House and from members of both political parties to fund the engine. This vote provides concrete evidence that cuts to Pentagon spending are a possibility and can gain bipartisan support.