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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Joe Gould, Alexander Ward, Matt Berg and Ari Hawkins | |  The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat, Gregory Meeks, called the proposal “devastating” and “absolutely unacceptable.” He argued the level of the State Department appropriations bill revealed last week wouldn’t allow Washington to keep pace with China and Russia as they expand their global influence. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | |
With help from Maggie Miller, Connor O’Brien and Lara Seligman
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Leading congressional Democrats are ripping into House Republicans for proposing a 30 percent cut to the State Department, accusing them of undercutting U.S. national security in the competition with China. The $41.4 billion State-Foreign Operations spending bill’s topline is just one piece of the puzzle. In a bid to appease conservatives upset by the debt limit package Congress passed earlier this month, House GOP leaders are seeking tens of billions of dollars in additional spending reductions on the non-defense side of the budget for the next fiscal year. When House Republicans last held the House in 2017, they watered down the Trump administration’s proposed $20 billion cut to State Department and foreign aid. But they still took big bites out of economic aid to help volatile regions as well as operations and diplomacy efforts while nudging down security assistance and payments to the U.N. and international organizations. Negotiations with the Senate killed that cut then, and they’re likely to do so again. The House Appropriations Committee is expected to take up government spending bills this week that add up to about $119 billion less than the spending caps the debt deal set and about $130 billion less than current government funding. Infuriated Democrats have accused Republicans of backtracking on the deal. The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. GREGORY MEEKS (D-N.Y.), called the proposal “devastating” and “absolutely unacceptable.” He argued the level of the State Department appropriations bill revealed last week wouldn’t allow Washington to keep pace with China and Russia as they expand their global influence. “We've got to make sure that we have the alternative to war, and that's diplomacy,” Meeks said. “If you talk to any military man, they’ll say you have to make sure that diplomacy is happening at the highest levels.” Rep. BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.), the House’s lead Democratic appropriator for the State Department and foreign aid, accused Republicans of reneging on the deal and running from global challenges. “On the continent of Africa, the Caribbean, other places where China is there and it’s planted its flag, we need to do more” diplomatically, she said. Republican appropriators have said they’ll be proposing to defund aid to countries that haven’t been on America’s side. A member of the same panel as Lee, Rep. CHRIS STEWART (R-Utah), said the idea was to “prioritize far more dramatically than we've done in the past” and focus on “real problems.” “We defund some things, and these aren’t political things. This is aid to other nations that we really think that isn't a priority or these guys haven't been playing with us,” he said. Stewart agreed with Democrats the bill is important to national security, but disputed that it would be harmful: “When you see the bill, I think you’ll see we’ve tried to focus on our national security.” Still, the chances that the House GOP version gets any support in the Democratic-led Senate is basically zero. It’s “dead on arrival,” said Sen. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It also says to me that Republicans are not serious about the China challenge,” he said. “I think the consequences would be that that will not let us meet the new competition we have with China. If anything, it would tie our hands and our ability to do so.”
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The F-35 delivers the unrivaled advantage for our pilots, nation, and partners. A decisive differentiator in near-peer warfare, the F-35 is the most advanced node in 21st century security network-centric architecture. Learn more. | | | | | CHINA-CUBA MILITARY BASE TALKS: It’s not just a spy base. China and Cuba are in talks to establish a joint military training facility that could host Chinese troops about 100 miles from the U.S. homeland, Alex reports. According to a senior U.S. official, Beijing and Havana are discussing what kind of training would take place at the facility and what the leadership structure would look like. Biden administration officials have brought up these talks with their counterparts in Beijing and Havana. It’s unclear, however, how far along China and Cuba are in their chats about the prospects for a deal, the official said. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news and had more detail. “Current and former U.S. officials said a new military facility could provide China with a platform to potentially house troops permanently on the island and broaden its intelligence gathering, including electronic eavesdropping, against the U.S.,” write WARREN STROBEL, GORDON LUBOLD, VIVIAN SALAMA and MICHAEL GORDON. “The planned facility is part of China’s ‘Project 141,’ an initiative by the People’s Liberation Army to expand its global military base and logistical support network, one current and one former U.S. official said.” There’s more: “China and Cuba already jointly run four eavesdropping stations on the island, according to U.S. officials. That network underwent a significant upgrade around 2019, when a single station expanded to a network of four sites that are operated jointly, and Chinese involvement deepened, according to the officials.” ACCOUNTING ERROR: The Pentagon has identified an additional $6.2 billion that can be used to send military aid to Ukraine, after discovering an accounting error, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said today. After reviewing the department’s accounting of the equipment it transferred to Ukraine in fiscal year 2022 and 2023, Defense Department officials discovered a “misevaluation,” Singh said. DOD overvalued the equipment by $2.6 billion in FY22 and $3.6 billion for FY23 for a total of $6.2 billion. This money will now be reallocated into the presidential drawdown fund, which the administration can use to send additional aid to Ukraine, Singh said.
The Pentagon first disclosed the accounting error in May.
KYIV TEES UP JULY DEADLINE FOR NATO: Ukrainian Ambassador to NATO NATALIA GALIBARENKO said Kyiv is looking for a commitment on its membership aspirations when world leaders meet for a summit in Vilnius in mid-July. Speaking to our own LILI BAYER, Galibarenko said the country wants “some kind of invitation — or at least commitment … to look at the timeframe and modalities of our membership.”
A number of Western capitals have advocated for a serious discussion about Ukraine’s future place in NATO only after the war is over. Ukrainian officials say they understand their country won’t join NATO while fighting is ongoing and that an outright invitation to join is unlikely at the Vilnius summit — but they are still pushing for NATO leaders to make a “political decision” on membership. BIDEN’S RED CARPET: Ties between Washington and New Delhi are stronger than ever as the pair enjoy “an unprecedented trust,” Indian Prime Minister NARENDRA MODI told the Wall Street Journal’s RAJESH ROY, BRENDAN MORAN and GORDON FAIRCLOUGH. Modi also made the case for India playing a larger part on the world stage in an interview ahead of his state dinner in Washington Thursday, saying his country “deserves a much higher, deeper and wider profile and a role.” The decision to invite Modi, a leader accused of cracking down on journalists and politicians among other ethical violations, has been widely criticized in recent weeks. But President JOE BIDEN plans to privately raise those human rights concerns with him, our own JONATHAN LEMIRE and NAHAL TOOSI report. India’s a crucial partner for Washington in its competition with China, and private criticism carries far less symbolism than a public rebuke. It’s reminiscent of last summer, when Biden said he raised human rights concerns with Saudi Crown Prince MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN during a trip to the kingdom, but faced intense backlash after fist-bumping the leader. XI’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU: Chinese paramount leader XI JINPING called talks on Monday with Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN “very candid,” but wouldn’t commit to reopening military-to-military channels. “China has not agreed to move forward with that. It’s an issue we have to keep working on,” he told reporters following meetings with Xi and top Chinese officials, per the Washington Post’s JOHN HUDSON and MEAGHAN TOBIN. Establishing that communication was a main objective of the meeting, which Blinken has pushed for since the Chinese spy balloon incident in February postponed the trip. Still, the two discussed a range of topics including ending the war in Ukraine, slowing North Korea’s nuclear program and fighting climate change. The U.S. and China indicated little progress on some of the most contentious disputes such as human rights, Taiwan and Bejing’s relationship with Russia during the meeting. Customs data on Tuesday indicated that Chinese imports of Russian oil last month hit their highest level since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year. IT’S TUESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at award@politico.com and mberg@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @mattberg33. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @nahaltoosi, @PhelimKine, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @magmill95, @johnnysaks130, @ErinBanco, @reporterjoe, @_AriHawkins and @JGedeon1.
| | WHICH ONE IS IT: Former President DONALD TRUMP left us scratching our heads during an interview with Fox News Monday night, in which he claimed the documents he’s being charged with withholding were declassified, then seemed to say they weren’t. “Everything was declassified because I had the right to declassify,” Trump told Fox News reporter BRET BAIER when asked about the documents in a contentious back-and-forth exchange. A few minutes later, Baier refers to a quote from the indictment in which Trump allegedly said he could’ve declassified the documents before taking them, but didn’t. “It's still classified as president, but there's no document there. Those were newspaper articles. There were copies of articles and magazines. There was no document there. And I couldn't have done it after I was out [of office],” Trump said. RFKJ’S TWEET STORM: Democratic presidential candidate ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. bashed the Biden administration’s foreign policy over the weekend and today, peddling a narrative pushed by Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN and arguing “war was the plan all along” for Washington. “Looks like the Biden Administration deployed BORIS JOHNSON to scuttle a tentative peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine in spring 2022,” he tweeted, referring to a video of Putin claiming Moscow and Kyiv signed a peace deal last year, before the former British PM — supposedly at NATO’s command — convinced the latter to keep fighting. There’s no proof that there was any such agreement, or that Johnson was deployed at Washington’s or NATO’s order in any capacity. Kennedy also criticized Blinken for, as he characterized it, confirming that the U.S. has no intention of ending the war: “The Ukrainians are cannon fodder in a U.S. proxy war against Russia,” he wrote.
| | | |   | | | | | NEW CYBER LITIGATORS: The Justice Department is creating a new team of cybersecurity-focused litigators to investigate and respond to state-backed cyber threats, Assistant Attorney General MATT OLSEN announced today, reports our own JOHN SAKELLARIADIS (for Pros!). “The new section will allow us to increase the scale and speed of our disruption campaigns and prosecutions of nation state cyber threats,” he said. The new cybersecurity section of the National Security Division will work with U.S. prosecutors and FBI field agents across the country to handle cases involving state-affiliated cyber criminals, nation-state hackers and money launders, Olsen added during a speech at the Hoover Institution. CYBER CHECKUP: Russia is evolving its use of cyberattacks in its war against Ukraine as Kyiv pursues an ongoing counteroffensive operation, Ukrainian cyber chief VICTOR ZHORA told our own MAGGIE MILLER. Zhora, the chief digital transformation officer at Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, said in an interview last week that Moscow has changed its cyberattacks from disruptive measures toward more influence operations and gathering data. This included an effort last week to disrupt Ukraine’s public broadcasting station and spread disinformation. “What has changed [is] their tactics, the goals of all of their offensive operations, which now lie mostly in data collection, in cyber espionage,” Zhora said. “To our understanding, these are attempts to get valuable data in order to gain some advantage on the battlefield.”
| | | EU AID PACKAGE TO KYIV: European Commission President URSULA VON DER LEYEN unveiled a new package for Ukraine today worth more than €50 billion in aid between 2024 and 2027, per our own PAOLA TAMMA: €17 billion was requested to provide grants for Ukraine, alongside another €33 billion in loans. Estimates from the World Bank indicate Kyiv’s total reconstruction costs could amount to over €383 billion. U.S. AMMO IN RUSSIA: Two Russian companies have obtained hundreds of thousands of rounds of U.S.-made ammunition, which have been used by Russian soldiers, our own SERGEY PANOV, SARAH ANNE AARUP AND DOUGLAS BUSVINE reported Monday. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that supplies of lethal and nonlethal military equipment are still reaching Russia despite the West’s imposition of unprecedented sanctions.
| | NO ACCESS: Republicans are moving forward with a bill in the House Appropriations Committee that would prohibit the DOD from using any funds to release personal information about service members, reports COURTNEY KUBE from NBC. Under the new provision, members of the public would have to file a public records request with the respective military branch to obtain information, and the subject would be notified prior to release. The bill comes after several cases in which the Pentagon accidentally released the private information of GOP lawmakers who were also former service members, including Nebraska Rep. DON BACON and Iowa Rep. ZACH NUNN. DEFENSE DEBATE GUESSING GAME: The House Armed Services Committee dives into its annual marathon markup of the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday. Last year’s meeting finished at 2:13 a.m. So how late will this year's debate last? Our colleagues at Morning Defense want to hear from you! Send your best prediction to cobrien@politico.com by 1 p.m. tomorrow, and the reader with the closest guess will get a shoutout in Thursday morning's Pro newsletter — plus a coveted 12 months of bragging rights.
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Information is the battlespace advantage. F-35 sensor fusion provides vast amounts of information to accelerate critical decisions and win the fight. Learn more. | | | | | DON’T HIT CRIMEA: The Kremlin vowed to retaliate if Ukraine used U.S. and British-provided missiles to attack Crimea. "The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and would entail immediate strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine," SERGEI SHOIGU, Russia’s defense minister, said today. Shoigu told military officials that Moscow had information on Ukraine’s plans to strike Crimea with American High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and British Storm Shadows. Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY has vowed to retake the annexed peninsula, potentially in his nation’s ongoing counter-offensive. The Biden administration has long signaled Kyiv can strike Crimea because Washington still considers it part of Ukraine. Biden said Monday the threat of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons is “real.”
| | — Retired Gen. DAVID GOLDFEIN has joined WestExec Advisors as a principal. Goldfein ended his 37-year career in the Air Force as the service’s chief of staff. — DONALD REDMAN has joined Echo Defense Project’s board of directors. He has held high-level positions at the Diversey Corporation and the DuBois chemical division of W.R. Grace and Company. — Alex was accepted as a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations today. He thanks all the people who recommended him.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — NATHALIE TOCCI, POLITICO: Enlargement’s back on the political agenda — RICKEN PATEL, The Los Angeles Times: Why is Biden silent on Modi and India’s slide toward autocracy? — MARK GALEOTTI, CNN: One sign Putin is losing ground
| | — Potomac Officers Club, 7 a.m: 2023 Navy Summit — Atlantic Council, 9 a.m.: China’s blueprint for the new world order — Information Technology Industry Council, 9 a.m.: The EU AI Act’s Influence on Global AI Policymaking— United States Institute of Peace, 9 a.m.: Why Women Matter to Peace and Security in the Indo-Pacific — Foreign Policy, 10 a.m.: Tensions Beyond the Strait — House Homeland Security Committee, 10 a.m.: Countering Threats Posed by Nation-State Actors in Latin America to U.S. Homeland Security — Center for Strategic and International Studies, 11:15 a.m.: Sen. CHUCK SCHUMER Launches SAFE Innovation in the AI Age at CSIS — R Street, 11 a.m.: Accounting for Risk: The China Problem — Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Belvoir Chapter, 11:30 a.m.: AFCEA Belvoir June 2023 Luncheon Thanks to our editor, Emma Anderson, who claims we’re helping China with every wrong decision we make. We also thank our producer, Sinobia Aiden, who is a champion of freedom.
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