Top Democratic lawmakers are holding a big-ticket fundraiser with major weapons manufacturers on Thursday ― as Washington enters a budget battle in which concessions to the Pentagon and the defense industry could mean slashing welfare programs like food stamps.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), his deputy Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair Rep. Suzan Delbene (D-Wash.) are listed as draws on an invitation to the event obtained by HuffPost. The downtown D.C. function ― dubbed a “defense and national security dinner” ― will raise funds for the committee, which is the campaign arm for House of the armed services committee, McCollum receives significant campaign donations from defense contractors. The sector was not a major contributor to the DCCC in the last few election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, but Democrats have been emphasizing national security more heavily in their campaign pitches since Trump’s rise scrambled the GOP’s traditional hawkish narrative.
Over the past two years, when Democrats fully controlled Congress, lawmakers twice pushed President Joe Biden to approve more military spending than he had requested. This year, Biden’s Defense Department budget request is even higher than last year’s final figure.
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Biden has overseen ballooning Pentagon funding while pledging to shift America’s resources away from costly foreign wars ― in an echo of his predecessor, Trump. Many progressives and some conservatives say the president and Congress should finally translate their rhetoric into change. On Thursday, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) introduced a bill to probe the Pentagon and launch automatic cuts at Defense Department offices that do not receive audits to ferret out suspected waste.
Lee and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) are also pushing legislation to reallocate $100 billion from the Pentagon budget. Meanwhile, right-wing advocates are urging McCarthy and Republicans to pursue Defense Department cuts. “Conservatives are ready to… confront the political establishment, unaccountable federal bureaucrats, and well-connected defense contractors all at once in order to keep the nation both solvent and secure,” Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, argued in an op-ed earlier this year.
For firms that rely on a sizable and growing Pentagon budget, there is a clear imperative to maintain political influence ― even in ways that could be alarming to regular voters.
“Folks have the right to support candidates whose goals are going to align with their own,” said Saurav Ghosh of the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, noting that the defense industry advances its interests through employee PACs and contributions by well-paid executives.
“The broader question is: is there a conflict of interest between that giving and the policy-making happening in Congress?” Ghosh continued. “When folks see [fundraising] happening, there is a question that is created… are the folks that we elect making the best decisions for the public, or are they making the best decisions for those that are funding their reelection campaigns?
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“That causes people to question and outright lose faith in our democratic process.”
When pressed about ethics concerns in drawing campaign contributions, lawmakers and political operatives often argue that it is inevitable that they receive attention from people working in the fields that they oversee.
“It’s understandable ― that doesn’t make it a good thing,” Ghosh said. “The obligation is on the folks in Congress to say, ‘If I want to be impartial or appear impartial, I need to decline PAC donations from the industry that I regulate…’ I think most people would agree with that.”
