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US Congress approves 2022 Pentagon budget increase of $ 23,9 billion

September 2, 2021

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Caught between his right wing and the Republican Party in favor of a massive increase in defense investments to support the challenge launched by Beijing and Moscow, and the left wing of the Democratic Party, to which he owed his election, in favor of a decrease in Defense credits in order to finance the social promises made during the campaign, President Joe Biden, and his administration, had taken a neutral position, granting an increase of only 1,5%, $ 11 billion to the Pentagon for the 2022 budget, for a total amount reaching $ 715 billion. However, in the United States, the final word on this budget does not lie with the President, but with Congress itself, which yesterday spoke in favor ofan additional increase of $ 23,9 billion for the Pentagon, in order to bring its 2022 budget to $ 739 billion, up almost 5% compared to the last budget of the Trump administration.

To achieve this, the two Senate defense committees and the House of Representatives, reached a massive bi-partisan agreement in favor of this effort, with 42 votes against 17, 14 elected Democrats having voted for this amendment proposed by the Republican Representative of Alabama Mike Rogers, thus marking the end of long negotiations between parliamentarians from both camps. This result, surprisingly presented not as a Republican victory but as a bi-partisan parliamentary success, was nevertheless expected, since even the Democratic representative of Washington and chairman of the HASC committee Adam Smith, had hinted that he would not oppose it. not, even though he personally did not adhere to the budget growth strategy. Although validated by the two parliamentary committees, this budget must now be validated by the Budget Appropriation Committee, which approves the final budget. But the momentum given by Republican and Democrat parliamentarians will be very difficult to moderate, even by supporters of more budgetary discipline.