The Pentagon has intensified efforts to win congressional support for President Trump’s record $1.5 trillion defense budget request, staging a series of closed-door briefings for Senate lawmakers.
Some Republican senators are warning that the Defense Department launched its lobbying offensive too late to build the coalition needed to push the unprecedented budget through Congress.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) praised Pentagon briefers for answering questions at a “very high level” following a Senate Armed Services Committee session on Capitol Hill last Thursday.
Rounds acknowledged persistent problems with the administration’s outreach, telling reporters: “The administration has not done a good job of understanding that even on the basic underlying appropriations bill — not even the supplemental — still takes 60 votes in the Senate to get it done.”
The South Dakota Republican said the latest discussion represented meaningful progress, adding: “I thought today’s discussion went a long ways towards starting to cure that problem.”
Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), a former Navy SEAL, described the classified briefing as “good” but said the Pentagon tailored its pitch toward Democrats skeptical of the war against Iran.
Sheehy was direct about the cost of the delayed outreach strategy, saying: “I think [it] would have been better had we started this seven, eight months ago and building up and building that coalition.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a former Navy pilot, said the Pentagon appeared to be operating in triage mode given the limited window remaining to pass the budget this year.
Kelly acknowledged the Pentagon’s effort to focus its case on the most significant priorities, but raised concerns about the overall scale of the request, noting that the defense budget is “twice the size of when I first got here.”
The Arizona Democrat was pointed in his skepticism, telling reporters: “Now they’re asking for $1.45 trillion, and I think they want a supplemental on top of it — it is an extraordinary amount of money, and they have their systems in there that things that I’m convinced won’t work.”
Kelly added bluntly: “There’s stuff we don’t need,” signaling that Democratic votes for the full request will not come easily, regardless of the administration’s briefing campaign.
Democratic Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.) was equally critical, saying after the briefing that the Pentagon has not “done the type of engagement they need” to justify the $1.5 trillion budget request.
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) offered a more measured assessment, saying the briefings are “always useful” regardless of timing, and emphasizing that senators carry their own responsibility to stay informed through subcommittee sessions.
Fischer called on the Pentagon to deliver a clearly defined list of priority items, telling reporters: “I think when something is a main priority for this country and for the Pentagon as well, something that we need, we need to prioritize it so that we have long-term funding and it gets the attention that it needs.”
The intensified briefing campaign comes as the broader push for additional defense funding from Congress has stalled, with the administration still far from securing the bipartisan support needed to advance the record-breaking request.
