Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for defense secretary, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin III, will testify before the House Armed Services Committee as a prerequisite for a waiver to serve, panel chairman Rep. Adam Smith said Tuesday.
The House defied a veto threat from President Donald Trump on Tuesday and approved a $740.5 billion defense policy bill that Trump opposes because it doesn’t repeal a prized liability shield for social media firms.
President Trump has doubled down on his threat to veto the annual defense policy bill with a pair of late-night tweets that called out the Republican Senate Armed Services Committee chairman.
Eyeing China’s rise as a global military and economic power, lawmakers unveiled a compromise defense policy bill Thursday that targets China on multiple fronts, with $6.9 billion prescribed for a new Pacific Deterrence Initiative over two years.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith said he believes President Donald Trump would veto the bill but warned it “would be a huge political mistake.”