On Thursday, the US House of Representatives approved allocating more than 830 thousand million euros to the country’s defense budget for the 2023 fiscal year, an increase of 30 thousand million euros from what the Biden administration had set.
With the support of 329 of the 430 parliamentarians in attendance, this is the second year in a row that Democrats and Republicans have supported a significant increase in the Pentagon’s spending plan and in general military policy, Politico reports.
In addition to the budget, the House-approved bill also rejects several of the US president’s national security plans, such as a nuclear cruise missile the administration planned to build, or the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
In this sense, the bill causes a setback to Biden’s intention to sell F-16s to Turkey as well, as the House of Representatives approved an amendment that adds hurdles due to concerns about his purchase of Russian weapons, or the violation of neighboring countries.
Democrats and Republicans also agreed to allocate several billion euros for the manufacture of additional aircraft and ships, according to the mentioned media.
Now it will be the Senate’s turn to adopt its own version of the bill, later setting up a committee that unifies the bicameral version, a process that could take several months.
