Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Pentagon reporters Monday afternoon at the start of the defense budget briefing that “the resources we devote to defense should be at the level that adequately meets the challenges of the global strategic environment the United States faces today.” He also said that since 1993—the last time he served in government—the defense budget has “taken a smaller relative share of our national wealth, while the world has gotten more complicated and arguably more dangerous.”
House, Senate Unveil Competing Proposals for 2026 Budget
July 11, 2025
Lawmakers from the House and Senate laid out competing versions of the annual defense policy bill on July 11, with vastly different potential outcomes for some of the Air Force’s most embattled programs.