Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he won’t vote for the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill unveiled Wednesday unless a clause ending the restriction on using Russian-made engines in national security space launches is rescinded. Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, McCain called the legislation a “triumph of pork barrel parochialism” and he blasted appropriators for secretly including the language in the legislation. The Fiscal 2016 defense authorization, which Congress overwhelmingly approved before and after a presidential veto, allows United Launch Alliance to use a total of nine Russian-made RD-180 engines, which power the Atlas V rocket, McCain said. “My colleagues on the Appropriations Committee crafted a provision in secret, with no debate, to overturn the will of the Senate as expressed in two National Defense Authorization Acts,” said McCain. “And the result will enable a monopolistic corporation to send potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to Vladimir Putin and his corrupt cronies and deepen America’s reliance on these thugs for our military’s access to space.” (Read McCain’s full statement.)
US Space Command Should Always Be Led by a Guardian
Sept. 12, 2026
General Stephen Whiting took command of U.S. Space Command in January 2024, and if customary three-year tenures hold, his tour would end in January 2027. The question now before the President and Senate is who should follow him? Whoever they choose, it has to be a Guardian—and so should every successor…
