With Esper’s nomination, the Pentagon gets its third Acting SecDef in one month, underscoring the continued turmoil at the top of Trump administration’s national security machine.

“Today, the House passed H.R. 2500, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 by a vote of 220 to 197, without the support of a single Republican.”

“Arlington is full of our comrades, and we understand absolutely full well the hazards of our chosen profession … and we are not going to be intimidated into making stupid decisions. We will give our best military advice, regardless of the consequences to ourselves.”

“We’re expediting the process, but there are no shortcuts,” says SASC Ranking Member Jack Reed regarding Mark Esper’s SecDef confirmation hearing.

The clock is ticking, and the Senate, where floor time is always at a premium, has only 35 days in session after July 4th before fiscal 2020 begins (August is mostly recess, unless the Senate decides to enjoy the swelter of a Washington summer).

A top State Dept. official had a rough reception at the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, as Democrats and Republicans appear increasingly uneasy with US/Saudi ties.

The Trump Administration argues the HASC’s cuts to the defense policy bill would hamper missile detection and defense priorities.

Hell hath no fury like a lawmaker betrayed. This week, the House will take up the crucial National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress’ primary instrument to oversee the U.S. military. Though the NDAA has passed for 58 straight years, partisan political choices threaten to end that streak.     The Democratic House passed out of… Keep reading →

  UPDATED WASHINGTON: US commercial satellite sales to AsiaSat, and the company’s leasing of communications bandwidth to China, are not threats to US national security, say experts — contrary to charges by Republican Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst. Instead, US export control law very deliberately has been crafted to encourage such sales in a… Keep reading →

Senate language on the Space Force leaves open the chance that a new administration could walk it back to merely changing the name of Air Force Space Command, says CSIS’s Kaitlyn Johnson.