{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=B4F8A259-289E-4DA0-BAF7-9CE4E117BBE8", "McConnell and Coons in The Washington Post on FY26 Defense Appropriations", "2025-08-01", "2025", "2025-08", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee wrote the following op-ed for today\u2019s digital edition of The Washington Post:\n\nOn Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved our bill that would invest $852 billion in national defense over the next fiscal year by a decisive 26-3 vote. It would restore aid to Ukraine, boost assistance to our European and Pacific allies, and go beyond the president\u2019s budget request (and the funding approved by our counterparts in the House) to modernize the U.S. military and defense industrial base to meet tomorrow\u2019s threats. This bill is an urgently needed step in the right direction.\n\nAmerica\u2019s adversaries \u2014 principally China, Russia, Iran and North Korea \u2014 are investing heavily to blunt our military advantages, threaten our interests and undermine our influence. They\u2019re collaborating on military technology, providing each other with diplomatic cover, and otherwise facilitating one another\u2019s aggression and hegemonic aspirations. Countering this growing alignment requires strengthening our own alliances and partnerships with smart soft-power investments in global health and humanitarian aid that deny China opportunities to supplant U.S. influence.\n\nFirst, however, it means healthy investments in American hard power. On this front, we have our work cut out for us.\n\nThis year, the Pentagon has had to meet payrolls, train forces, procure weapons and sustain operations with funds based on estimates made more than a year ago. That\u2019s because, for the first time ever, Congress and the administration funded our military through a continuing resolution at spending levels set in 2023 instead of passing an updated budget. This was a tremendous missed opportunity to make serious, full-year investments in readiness, modernization and industrial capacity, and it has already had enormous consequences.\n\nFor example, even after the one-time influx of spending Congress passed last month, the Defense Department has come to us to acknowledge significant shortfalls in critical areas such as shipbuilding and high-demand munitions. The lesson here is obvious: There is no substitute for consistent, full-year appropriations that adequately address the growing requirements of our military.\n\nOur effort this year won\u2019t be enough to close the gaps with our adversaries\u2019 sustained investments. Expanding shipyard and munitions capacity, deepening stocks of critical weapons, adopting new technologies, and recruiting and retaining service members and a skilled civilian workforce will all require increased funding. Meeting the urgent needs of a military adapting to renewed major-power competition will take growing annual commitments.\n\nFor now, however, we must focus on expanding production capacity for critical munitions \u2014 from the most basic artillery rounds to cutting-edge air defense interceptors. Recent high-tempo operations, such as the U.S. Navy\u2019s work to defend freedom of navigation against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, have made it clear just how quickly modern warfare can deplete stockpiles of important (and expensive) weapons. We know the Pentagon\u2019s top leaders share our commitment to deepening America\u2019s magazines, but the president\u2019s initial budget request was insufficient for the scale of the challenge he intends to address. The Senate\u2019s higher allocation of $7.3 billion to fully fund and expand munitions production capacity would show we\u2019re serious about tackling this multiyear project.\n\nChina\u2019s naval buildup, at astonishing speed and scale, puts America\u2019s dwindling capacity to build tomorrow\u2019s Navy \u2014 or even maintain the fleet we have \u2014 in stark relief. The Senate\u2019s bill would address shipbuilding misalignments and funding shortfalls that reconciliation left behind by increasing investment in critical projects such as Columbia- and Virginia-class submarines, DDG-51 destroyers, shipyard infrastructure, and workforce development by $8.7 billion.\n\nOur bill also makes significant investments in quality of life for men and women in uniform, such as major renovations of Marine Corps barracks across many bases and a pay raise of nearly 4 percent, including funding the raise for junior enlisted members in last year\u2019s defense authorization bill. It also fully funds child care fee assistance programs for military families for the first time.\n\nFinally, we recognize the enormous dividends of investing in allies and partners. Our measure will help our friends \u2014 from the Baltic states to the Global South, the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East \u2014 build more capable forces, buy U.S.-made weapons and technologies, increase collective deterrence, and keep more U.S. service members out of harm\u2019s way. Prevailing in any future fight will also draw on the lessons we continue to learn from Ukraine, a place the Army secretary rightly calls \u201cthe Silicon Valley of warfare.\u201d Abandoning partners at the cutting edge of modern warfare would be strategic self-harm. That\u2019s why our bill would restore funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative as well as programs like it that make America safer.\n\nJust after the start of World War II in Europe, the chief of naval operations, Adm. Harold Stark, was instrumental in delivering what became known as the Two-Ocean Navy Act, an overdue break from years of stagnant military investment. Stark observed then that \u201cdollars cannot buy yesterday.\u201d If our colleagues and the administration are serious about defeating tomorrow\u2019s threats, then we must start investing in our common defense today.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:02:47Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=B4F8A259-289E-4DA0-BAF7-9CE4E117BBE8"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5280020888894796, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}