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Just two days after the U.S. ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan, more than a dozen Democrats with strong ties to the military establishment defied President Joe Biden and voted to add nearly $24 billion to the defense budget for fiscal year 2022.

On Wednesday,14 Democrats joined 28 Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to adopt an amendment from Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., to the fiscal year 2022 defense authorization bill that would boost Bidens $715 billion spending proposal to $738.9 billion. The move follows the Senate Armed Services Committees vote to similarly raise the top line to more than $740 billion in its July markup of the bill.

The 14 House Democrats to support the defense spending were Reps. Jim Langevinof Rhode Island; Joe Courtneyof Connecticut; Jared Goldenof Maine; Elaine Luriaof Virginia;Mikie Sherrillof New Jersey; Stephanie Murphyof Florida; Anthony Brownof Maryland; Filemon Velaof Texas; Seth Moultonof Massachusetts; Salud Carbajalof California; Elissa Slotkinof Michigan; Kai Kaheleof Hawaii; Marc Veaseyof Texas; and Steven Horsfordof Nevada.

The decision by these lawmakers to approve the higher budget is not necessarily shocking in a political environmentin which the militarys leaders demand an annual budget growth of 3 to 5 percent above inflation. Bidens $715 billion proposal was a 1.5 percent nonadjusted increase above this years spending level.

One congressional staffer, who was not permitted to speak on the record, said in an email, many Dems, especially when serving [on the House Armed Services Committee] are reluctant to look soft on defense by opposing increases to the defense budget, so in some ways its surprising the majority of Dems still voted against the topline increase. (Seventeen Democrats voted against Rogerss amendment, not enough to prevent its inclusion in the bill.)

Many ofthe Democrats who voted for the $24 billion increase have close ties to the defense establishment. Their districts are home to job-promoting manufacturing sites and military bases, and much of the extra funding will go directly to projects at those locations. Many of the Democrats have also received generous campaign donations from contractors. In fact, Federal Election Commission data shows that in the first six months of this year, the 14 Democrats collectively received at least $135,000 from PACs representing the countrys top 10 defense vendors: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, L3Harris, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Leidos, Honeywell, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

A closer look reveals potentially strong incentives for those Democrats to support an increase in defense spending:

Meanwhile, some of the 14 Democrats who defied Biden to vote for greater defense spending have also tried to blow up their partys efforts to achieve the presidents domestic policy goalsmost notably, Medicare expansion, paid family leave, an extension of the child tax credit, and billions of dollars for clean energy and other climate initiatives. Golden and Vela joined New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer last month to insist that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hold an immediate vote on a $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill rather than wait to finish Democrats flagship $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. Murphy later joined that call, airing concerns about the size of the reconciliation bill. Their demands were ultimately unsuccessful.

Despite so many members of Congress voting to add money to the defense budgets, 17 Democrats still opposed Rogerss amendment, including committee chair Adam Smith of Washington, who received $32,000 in donations from the PACs of the top 10 defense contractors in the first half of this year the most of any Democrat on the panel.

Despite disagreeing with the increase, Smith and most of the others still voted to approve the overarching defense legislation and advance it to the floor anyway. (In fact, the 15 Democrats who voted against the higher budget but nevertheless passed the bill collectively received a few thousand dollars more in donations from the top 10 military contractors than the 14 who supported Rogerss amendment.) Only California Reps. Sara Jacobs and Ro Khanna who got no money from the vendors stood their ground and voted against the bills passage.

[A]fter twenty years of war in Afghanistan, twenty years of our servicemembers and their families answering the call, trillions of dollars in funding from the American people, I cant support another misguided effort to overflow the Pentagons budget beyond what our military leaders are even requesting, Jacobs said in a press release.

For Khanna, Wednesday was the first time he voted against moving the annual defense bill out of committee in five years; he argued that the $24 billion would be better spent on helping veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, resettling Afghan allies and refugees, or vaccinating people against Covid-19.

More:
Democrats Who Joined Republicans to Increase Military Budget Have Strong Defense Ties - The Intercept