At a meeting of the House Committee on Armed Services this week, Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) asked for the elimination of “the $150 billion slush fund for the military.” Garamendi specifically targets the controversial Sentinel program, a U.S. Air Force (USAF) initiative to modernize and replace the aging intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system from the 1970s.
Note: During the first Trump administration, the USAF awarded Northrop Grumman a contract for development of the LGM-35 Sentinel system. During the Biden administration, the USAF said “the program’s costs had risen to over $125 billion—37% above the initial $95.3 billion budget—and its deployment would be delayed by two years.” The projected budget rose to more than $140 billion by July 2024.
According to Congressman Garamendi, now “Republicans are trying to hand Trump and Hegseth a $150 billion slush fund with no plan.”
As seen below, Garamendi asks the members on the Committee: “Have we lost our minds? $150 billion out of the mouths of children who are not going to get a school lunch. That’s what’s happening here.”
Republicans are trying to hand Trump and Hegseth a $150 billion slush fund with no plan.
“Have we lost our minds? $150 billion out of the mouths of children who are not going to get a school lunch. That’s what’s happening here.” pic.twitter.com/cBXuY1T7Ar
— John Garamendi (@RepGaramendi) April 29, 2025
Garamendi challenges his fellow lawmakers: “give me a rationale why we should be reducing health care services across this nation, why we should be reducing educational services, why we should be giving billionaires an additional tax cut so that we have a $150 billion slush fund for the military.”
Note: In his opening remarks, Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), said: “It’s also reckless to gift $150 billion to @POTUS and @SecDef Hegseth – on top of the roughly $900 billion Defense Budget and despite the Administration failing to provide a FY26 budget or even execution instructions for the rest of FY25.”
Ranking Member @RepAdamSmith in his opening remarks at the full committee reconciliation markup noted there’s no question that the @DeptofDefense has requirements and no question that we as a country face threats.
We need to meet those threats, but not by slashing taxes for… pic.twitter.com/LSx1jP3qMW
— House Armed Services Democrats (@HASCDemocrats) April 29, 2025
Talking of Trump and Hegseth, Smith added: “Both have shown repeatedly that there isn’t a chance in hell that they will spend this money intelligently, efficiently, or effectively. The only thing we’ve seen from this Administration is their continued culture war, complete with banning books and words and whitewashing military history.”
The Congressman said: “The Pentagon is being very poorly run. I see no evidence that they’re going to try to get any better.”
Smith also reported that most of the Republican members of the Committee didn’t show up for the meeting “and none—except for the Chairman—have spoken. They didn’t even try to defend what Trump and Hegseth are doing at the DoD and to our national security. Maybe that’s because they know it is not defensible. And worse, they seem completely uninterested in doing their jobs as Members of this committee—exercising oversight of the Department of Defense. They have outsourced that job to Elon Musk.”
“House Armed Services Democrats came to today’s Reconciliation markup in the true spirit of legislative oversight. Most of our Republican colleagues haven’t shown up, and none—except for the Chairman—have spoken. They didn’t even try to defend what Trump and Hegseth are doing at… pic.twitter.com/bv3G1xkaO0
— House Armed Services Democrats (@HASCDemocrats) April 29, 2025