Congress Won’t Fund US Space Force in Military Spending Bill

Officials want Mattis to present a plan for warfighting in space

The joint House-Senate committee working on the final language of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has declined to include any funding for the creation of he US Space Force, which President Trump announced last month.

Trump had promised that the Space Force would be like the US Air Force, calling it “separate, but equal.” Congress was openly skeptical in the debates, and the final version didn’t offer any direct funding for the plan.

Instead, the committee report instructs Defense Secretary James Mattis to come up with specific plans for warfighting in space, a plan which Congress would use in subsequent years to debate possible funding for the program.

Pentagon officials for years have expressed interest in the militarization of space, envisioning spending untold billions of dollars on projects that would assure American military “dominance” over space into the future. With few other nations investing much of anything in space, however, Congress was in no hurry to set aside money for it either.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.