Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan emphasized China as a military threat as he went before lawmakers to pitch President Donald Trump’s proposed $750 billion budget for national security.
"China’s defense spending approaches that of the United States, when we take into account purchasing power and the portion of our budget going to military pay and benefits,” Shanahan said in prepared testimony Thursday for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As Trump seeks to negotiate a trade deal with China, Shanahan said its military buildup, coupled with its "organized approach to steal foreign technology, has allowed China to modernize its missile, space, and cyber capabilities, as well as project power far beyond its borders.”
On Syria, he said the U.S.-led coalition has "liberated virtually all of the territory” that Islamic State held but that some American troops need to remain to prevent a resurgence. Trump has agreed to keep about 400 U.S. troops in Syria after announcing in December that he would pull out all 2,000 of them.
Jim Mattis stepped down as defense secretary in December in protest to Trump’s initial announcement that he would withdraw all of the troops. Shanahan, who was Mattis’s deputy, has drawn praise from Trump but no commitment yet to nominate him as the next defense secretary.
Unlike the sometimes prickly Mattis, Shanahan has shown enthusiasm for Trump’s policies -- including using the military and military construction funds along the border with Mexico. Shanahan defended the diversion of resources in his prepared testimony.
Shanahan, a former Boeing Co. executive, said the proposed fiscal 2020 budget includes $3.6 billion for military construction funds that Trump plans to shift to his border wall this year and an additional $3.6 billion "in case additional emergency funding is needed for the border.”
"Military construction on the border will not come at the expense of our people, our readiness, or our modernization,” he said.
But the Senate is poised for a vote to reject Trump’s declaration of an emergency on the border that he says permits him to spend the money there. Senator Jack Reed, the Armed Services panel’s top Democrat, said defense funds are being misused for the wall.
