WASHINGTON – The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan could mean changes for the billions of dollars the Pentagon sought in the next fiscal year, but is unlikely to change the larger defense policy and spending bills currently under consideration in Congress.
The sudden collapse of the Afghan government and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban required the emergency evacuation of the embassy in Kabul. President Joe Biden ordered the deployment of 7,000 additional troops to secure Hamid Karzai International Airport amid an effort to relocate Afghan nationals, and their families, who aided the U.S. military during the two decadeslong war in Afghanistan.
“The most likely outcome is there’s a lot of handwringing, there’s a lot of sadness, there’s a lot of disappointment in the way things are going down in Afghanistan,” said Todd Harrison, the director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But it ultimately does not affect the defense authorization or appropriations process in any significant way.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee already has finished marking up its version of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. House Armed Services subcommittees marked up their portions of the House bill in July, with the full committee scheduled to hold its marathon markup session of the massive defense policy bill on Sept. 1.
On the spending side, House appropriators have already approved a $705.9 billion defense bill.
