President Trump’s military options for any new strikes on Bashar Assad in Syria could be limited if Congress punts on a defense budget this month, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee said.
As the White House weighs how to proceed in Syria, lawmakers face an April 28 deadline and have just days — following a two-week recess — to pass legislation funding the military through September.
Failure to reach a deal could lead to another continuing budget resolution, a stop-gap measure that would leave the services billions of dollars short, halt training and flights this summer, curb some war operations, and lead to “dead Americans” on the battlefield, the top officers of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps told House lawmakers this week.
Now, the missile strikes against Assad and the desire to continue pressure on the regime is giving advocates another reason to press for a new budget.
“I think a [continuing resolution] would significantly constrain our military options” against Assad, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
The Pentagon did not indicate any more attacks were planned after Navy warships fired 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield on Thursday. But Congress is pressing the White House to share its strategy now that Trump ordered the first U.S. strike on Assad in retaliation for his use of chemical weapons against civilians.
Defense hawks on the Armed Services Committee such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chairman, are proposing Trump wage wider military operations against Assad.
McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a committee member, said the missile strike should just be the beginning of a new phase of U.S. military intervention.
They were urging the president to ground Syria’s air force by shooting down aircraft and bombing runways, create safe zones in the country and arm the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army, which would be a dramatic escalation in involvement with the six-year-old civil war there.
Graham said Congress must pass a regular appropriations spending bill this month to keep those and other military options open against Assad.
“A continuing resolution is a death blow to military readiness,” he said. “Every military commander said it would throw our people into chaos.”
Some committee Democrats say they could support new strikes on Assad under certain conditions.
“If [there is] any indication of any other chemical weapons, I think we should take out all the rest of the airfields and their air force,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, a senior Armed Services Democrat from Florida.
Costs for new military operations can quickly mount.
The 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles used Thursday to strike Shayrat air base cost about $89 million total, according to Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Without a new budget, the Defense Department could have to absorb the costs of administration efforts to oust Assad, who has been accused of various atrocities and the death of hundreds of thousands of Syrians during the war.
Since last fall, the military has been operating on continuing budget resolutions, which essentially freeze funding at the previous year’s level, because lawmakers have not passed regular appropriations bills.
