U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe is working with U.S. Senator Richard Shelby to tie increases in defense spending to increases in non-defense spending. Inhofe is the Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Shelby serves as Vice-Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. They are proposing an amendment to the U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act which would provide for a dollar-for-dollar “parity” between increases in non-defense spending and spending on defense.
Inhofe and Shelby released a joint statement saying they are trying to drive home the point with President Biden and Democrats that defense spending in necessary to counter China’s growing threat.
“China is our nation’s top threat, and the Chinese Communist Party is investing in the People’s Liberation Army at record rates. In our efforts to counter China’s quest for global hegemony, it would be shortsighted to ramp up our domestic investments in technology without also increasing defense spending and leveraging our expansive defense research and development enterprise.
“The best deterrent to Chinese ambition and aggression is a strong and feared American military. Providing the funding increases our military needs to counter this growing threat must be our highest priority. Instead, President Biden’s budget proposes cutting defense while increasing non-defense spending by nearly 20 percent. His priorities are out of order — a strong military underpins everything else we do to push back on China. That is why our amendment provides dollar-for-dollar parity in increases between defense and non-defense spending. We encourage our Democratic colleagues to join us in this effort for a whole-of-government approach to Chinese aggression. In light of the threat China poses, it’s hard to imagine anything that should garner more bipartisan support in the United States Senate.”
You can find the proposed language of the amendment here.
