Congresswoman Sara Jacobs Speaks Out in Opposition to Increasing Pentagon Budget Just Days After End of Operations in Afghanistan
Jacobs: “it’s time to recognize that there are simply not military solutions to every problem”
During Tuesday’s markup of H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-CA-53) forcefully spoke out against an amendment offered by Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R-AL-3) to increase the overall funding level authorization in the bill by $23.9 billion dollars.
Congresswoman Jacobs’ remarks as delivered are as follows:
It’s remarkable to me that as we end our long and expensive campaign in Afghanistan, so many are concluding that what we need is more war, more weapons, and billions of dollars more than even what the Pentagon is asking for.
And that many of the very same voices who say they are very worried about our debt and deficit are also demanding a sizable increase to this bill.
It’s as if we’ve learned nothing from the past 20 years.
We need to have an honest conversation about the Pentagon budget. We need to ask ourselves what is achievable and deliverable and make funding decisions based on the threats of the future — not the past.
We need to make decisions based on threats — not on what is good for our districts.
We need to actually prioritize.
And I want to be clear, there are some good things that would be funded in this addition.
And there are some areas in the defense budget where we need to increase funding — especially as it relates to military personnel and families.
We need to expand resources for mental health and housing and child care —but these are priorities that we can address within the existing topline number that we have.
And if we’re really serious about competing with China, as I’ve heard so many of my colleagues talk about, what we need is a better resourced and funded diplomatic corps, greater investments in our development practitioners so we have resources to compete with China’s investments.
We need to invest in our education system, in innovation, in our domestic infrastructure, in pandemic preparedness. That is what will determine if we are competitive with China, not whether we have one more F-35 that even the Pentagon says they don’t need.
For the last twenty years, we’ve been told “we need more.”
But I think it’s time to recognize that there are simply not military solutions to every problem.
I am voting no on increasing the budget by $23.9 billion. And I urge my colleagues to do the same.