Defense Secretary Jim Mattis pressed Congress to reject the idea of a new Space Force last year because he was concerned about defense budget uncertainty, according to his No. 2 at the Pentagon.
The defense secretary wrote a letter to the House and Senate armed services committees amid a budget fight in Congress saying he opposed adding new bureaucracy. But on Thursday, Mattis offered full-throated support of President Trump’s Space Force and unveiled what he called a “clear-eyed” plan to create it.
“When he made those comments a year ago, right, the timing is very important because we were facing another [continuing resolution], we had budget caps … and we were going through significant belt-tightening exercises,” Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said.
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Trump also began pushing earlier this year in tweets and speeches for a Space Force, weighing into what had been a battle between House members spearheading the idea and military leaders who opposed it.
After the president’s first public endorsement, the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force backed off their public opposition dating back to last summer when they also said a new service would add unneeded bureaucracy.
Following the release of Mattis’ Space Force report and a speech by Vice President Mike Pence Thursday, the Pentagon is now undertaking a historic plan to create the first new military service branch since the founding of the Air Force shortly after World War II.
But the future budget outlook compared to a year ago is little improved.
Congress struck a two-year budget deal earlier this year to raise spending caps for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. As it wraps up the 2019 defense budget, that deal is about to run out and caps imposed by the Budget Control Act could snap back into place.
The caps could cause more budget uncertainty for the Pentagon when it requests the authorization and funding it needs for Space Force as part of the president’s budget in February.
Shanahan said the Pentagon does not yet know the price tag for the endeavor and supports on the Hill such as Rep. Mike Rogers have downplayed any future difficulties in funding the new service branch.
“We have not done the cost estimation yet,” Shanahan said. “I would assume it is billions.”
