Democratic hawks want to go bigger than Biden on defense spending

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s move to authorize significantly more defense spending next year than President Joe Biden wants demonstrates that there’s still a sizable number of Democratic hawks in the Senate willing to challenge the party’s dovish progressive wing.

At the committee’s Wednesday markup of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, Oklahoma’s James M. Inhofe, the ranking Republican, offered an amendment to authorize $25 billion more than Biden requested (and $37 billion more than what was appropriated for the current fiscal year), aides said.

The committee has made little information about the closed markup public. But aides disclosed Friday that a separate vote was held on the total amount of funding, and they also revealed the final tally: 25-1.