US Congress passes $738 billion military spending bill for 2020

(December 18, 2019) The US Senate just passed a $738 billion military spending bill for 2020. It has been sent to President Trump to sign. The bill authorizes substantial purchases of a number of warplanes and ships plus the funding of nuclear weapons.

The vote in the Senate was 86 for with just 8 against. The bill passed the House of Representatives by 377 to 48.

The bill

A recent article gives a partial breakdown of the bill: "Spending includes $635 billion for the base Pentagon budget, $23.1 billion for Energy Department nuclear weapons programs, $71.5 billion for war operations and $5.3 billion in emergency disaster recovery for military bases." The bill also gives US troops a 3.1 percent raise, the largest in a whole decade.

The bill took months to iron out differences and finally pass before the Friday deadline. Jim Hofe the Senate Armed Services chair said: "This year, the process of getting to a final conference report was certainly tougher than most years. There were some moments we weren't sure we were going to be able to get to one ... It took a few months of hard-fought negotiations, but the end result was getting a bill that we could be proud of."

Nuclear weapons spending

There is just a small increase in spending for nuclear weapons. However past restriction on low-yield weapons have been removed. The low-yield weapons are more usable than other nuclear weapons. Critics of the low-yield weapons argue that they may make nuclear strikes more common.

The Space Force

President Trump's Administration has called for a special force to ensure that the US maintains military superiority in space to guard again mainly unidentified enemies. The Republicans compromised with a Democratic provision that grants federal employees 12 weeks of paid parental leave in order to pass the Space Force provision.

The Space Force would be housed under the Air Force Department. It would be led by a chief of space operations who would become one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but would report to the Air Force secretary. The Force is to be generated from existing members of the military.

The Khashoggi issue

Most everything concerned with controversial issues related to the Yemen war and the backlash against the Saudi and US role in the war was left out but one issue was left front and center.

As a recent article reports:"US intelligence agencies will be given a month to make a formal declaration on whether the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was responsible for the murder of the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi."

Trump is expected to sign the bill next week. It will be interesting to see if the report on Khashoggi arrives on time and what its contents will be.

The CIA concluded a year ago November that the Crown Prince had ordered the murder as reported in an article at the time: "The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter."

Previously published in the Digital Journal