Houlahan Tries to Hold Up Defense Funds Until Hegseth Gets the Boot
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Chester) offered an amendment to the federal budget Tuesday to block an additional $150 billion in Pentagon funding until Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is removed from office.
Houlahan’s amendment failed, as did all the amendments offered by Democrats on the Armed Services Committee, which has 30 Republicans and 27 Democrats.
In her remarks to the committee, Houlahan said she’s “really passionate” about national security, our defense, our active duty men and women, and our veterans.”
In her six years in Congress, Houlahan said, she’s “worked hard” to “provide our war-fighters with everything they need to face the threats of today and the threats of future wars to come.”
“As a veteran and a daughter and granddaughter of veterans, that is my sacred duty and responsibility,” said Houlahan. “So for that reason, today is very, very hard. This hearing is very hard, and this vote is hard because I’m being asked to effectively vote to give a blank check to the Department of Defense, $150,000 billion of additional investment.”
“This kind of money in the right hands, for the right purposes, we may actually likely need,” she said. “It is indeed a very dangerous world that we live in…But here’s my problem: As a member of this body, I also have the constitutional oversight responsibility.”
“You see, the problem here is Secretary Hegseth,” said Houlahan. “He has proven himself to be incompetent, to be reckless, to be paranoid. And he cannot be trusted with these, our precious resources, our national treasure, and the lives of our military men and women. Secretary Hegseth must go. And until he is no longer part of the government, no longer part of the Department of Defense (DOD), I simply cannot vote to authorize this money in good faith.”
In a statement afterward, Houlahan added that the DOD under Hegseth did not have a “clear, transparent plan” for the additional funding.
Republican Chairman Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.) called the Democrats’ amendments “overbroad and may have unintended consequences.”
Hegseth graduated from Princeton in 2003. He was commissioned as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard and deployed overseas. He served at Guantanamo Bay, in Iraq, and Afghanistan. Hegseth also served in several staff positions in the National Guard, according to the DOD website. His military awards include two Bronze Star Medals, the Joint Commendation Medal, two Army Commendation Medals, and the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB).
Hegseth wrote five books, including the best seller “The War on Warriors.”
During his brief tenure as Secretary of Defense, he’s been under fire for using the Signal app to send details about U.S. military activity to friends and family members.
After several years of struggling to find enough recruits, military recruitment is up in fiscal year 2025. However, improvement began before Trump took office. Hegseth is welcoming back military members who left the service rather than taking the required COVID-19 vaccinations.
Mark Cancian with the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Associated Press more money for recruiting from Congress and the Biden administration may have improved recruitment before Hegseth took over at the Defense Department.
But, Cancian added, “To be honest, Hegseth, I think he has excited a certain part of the American society.”
