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Prominent Republicans are saying President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 defense budget request does not deliver the “unprecedented” increase in defense and border security the White House claims.
“For Defense spending, the President proposes an increase of 13 percent to $1.01 trillion for FY 2026,” states the outline of president’s budget request.
The letter to congressional appropriators does note that a portion of the increase in defense and border security spending would be provided through the “reconciliation process,” which is stand-alone supplemental designed to buy assets over multiple years.
But absent the reconciliation funds, the fiscal 2026 request is no increase all, said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a statement Friday.
“President Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda, but his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget were apparently not listening,” he said. “For the defense budget, OMB has requested a fifth year straight of Biden administration funding, leaving military spending flat, which is a cut in real terms,” he said.
Wicker added that OMB’s $892.6 billion budget request “is a cut in real terms” and that “reconciliation defense spending does not replace the need for real growth in the military’s base budget.”
The $892.6 billion request for fiscal 2026 is nearly equivalent to the $893 billion approved for fiscal 2025.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the House Armed Services Committee chairman, expressed similar concern, stating “the requested base budget for defense does not reflect a realistic path to building the military capability we need to achieve President Trump’s Peace Through Strength agenda.”
“Make no mistake: a one-time influx reconciliation spending is not a substitute for full-year appropriations,” echoed Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense, in a May 2 statement.
Budget reconciliation is a process Congress uses to fast-track certain legislation related to spending and revenue.
While only a simple majority is needed in the Senate, discretionary spending cannot be included in reconciliation and must follow the normal appropriations process.
On April 30, the House Armed Services Committee approved a $150 billion increase in defense spending to be a part of the larger package.
Much of funding is for shipbuilding and the Golden Dome with $14 billion for military readiness and $9 billion for military personnel.
House Republicans hope to have the full reconciliation package passed and sent to the Senate by Memorial Day.
The release of the administration’s skinny budget and Capitol Hill’s reaction to it sets the tone for the coming months of negotiating over defense policy and appropriations.
─ By Jennifer Hickey
