A common ritual during the increasingly regular government shutdown fights is for the individual military branches to write to lawmakers warning how a funding lapse would threaten national defense.
That practice may not hold this time around.
With less than a week before the Sept. 30 funding deadline, the individual heads of the military branches have yet to send correspondence to lawmakers about the impact of a shutdown, two people familiar with the matter said.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense is preparing a document, according to a person familiar with the matter. But it’s not clear if a final version will be sent to the Hill. Overall, there isn’t a lot of urgency among military leaders to sound the alarm about the repercussions of a shutdown.
This approach stands in contrast to recent years. In late 2023, for example, the secretary of defense, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force all penned letters to top Senate appropriators before Congress passed its so-called “laddered” stopgap funding bill to avoid a shutdown. They warned that a year-long continuing resolution would delay the development of certain weapon systems, impede some military construction projects and jeopardize readiness.
The silence from military leaders is another indication of how the Trump administration appears to be handling the preparations for a shutdown differently than in the past. As we detailed above, the OMB has drafted a memo directing federal agencies to prepare plans for laying off a raft of employees if the government isn’t funded beyond this month.
The reconciliation factor. The lack of engagement from military leaders with the Hill on a potential shutdown comes after Congress recently made sure to fill the Pentagon’s coffers.
The Defense Department made out well in the Republican reconciliation package and under the current full-year stopgap spending plan enacted earlier this year. Both those bills have raised questions within the military about the necessity of sending out the usual missives if Congress will ultimately put more money toward national security anyway, a person familiar with the situation indicated.
