The Senate steps up on defense

Good political news is rare these days, but there are glimmers of light in Congress as it negotiates the annual military policy bill. A Senate committee last week added $25 billion to the defense budget outline, and in a better era this would trigger a larger election debate about America’s deteriorating defenses.

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 22-3 for a National Defense Authorization Act that approves $923 billion for defense in fiscal 2025. An authorization is a policy outline that still requires specific spending approval in appropriations. But it’s a start that signals a bipartisan view that the U.S. is failing to keep up with the world’s rising and increasingly coordinated threats.

The committee bill is especially notable because it exceeds the $895 billion defense cap for 2025 set by last year’s debt-limit deal between former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden. That cap is a defense cut after inflation, and lawmakers are right to break it. Global threats have become more evident even in the past few months, as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea collaborate.

A year ago one major land war was raging and the Ukrainians looked in better shape to win it. Now Israel is also in an existential fight, and the U.S. Navy is burning through missiles against the Houthi terrorists in the Red Sea. North Korea is growing more belligerent. The Russian navy is conducting exercises off the coast of Florida. (Calling Sunshine State Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.)

U.S. adversaries sense American weakness, and not only because Mr. Biden has given them cause. U.S. spending on defense is nearing post-World War II lows of 3% of the economy. Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on Armed Services, recently published a report assessing that current threats require a return to 5%. The Senate committee’s increase reflects that groundwork.

The committee bill adds money to buy two Virginia-class attack submarines next year, instead of one as the White House proposed. The Biden Administration has heralded its deal to sell subs to the Australians as a diplomatic triumph. Yet the advertising is a fantasy without more defense spending given the U.S. Navy’s submarine shortages and maintenance woes. The bill also adds a destroyer and an oiler and speeds up the Navy’s next aircraft carrier.

The Armed Services bill tries to stabilize an aging and shrinking Air Force by barring retirement of F-22 jets and purchasing more F-15EXs. A committee aide says the bill also includes some $5 billion to expand U.S. munitions lines that the Ukraine war has shown to be inadequate. About $1 billion would go for space capabilities that are classified, which are surely needed as Vladimir Putin tests menacing anti-satellite weapons.

The budget caps were written for a world that no longer exists, and Congress will now have to adapt its priorities to the new global reality—which means reorganizing from butter to guns. There’s a belief among too many Republicans that the world’s threats will dissipate if Donald Trump wins in November.

That’s a dangerous illusion. Adversaries won’t believe any U.S. President’s words and policies unless they are backed by credible hard power. Mr. Trump could help the country and his potential Presidency if he makes the need for stronger defenses a theme of his campaign.

The editorial was published June 17 by the Wall Street Journal.