| | | | | |  | | By Bryan Bender | Presented by Northrop Grumman | With Jacqueline Feldscher and Connor O'Brien Editor's Note: Morning Defense is a free version of POLITICO Pro Defense's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Defense will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 26 and Friday, Nov. 27. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Monday, Nov. 30. | | | — A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers is moving to block arms sales to the United Arab Emirates. — The House names negotiators to work out a final National Defense Authorization Act with the Senate. — The acting Pentagon chief seems bent on making an imprint during his short tenure. HAPPY THURSDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we think the lost art of letter writing needs to be revived. Like the one comedian Groucho Marx wrote to movie and aerospace mogul Howard Hughes in January 1951 asking him to release a film, "It's Only Money," that he starred in with Frank Sinatra. "I am not a young man anymore, Mr. Hughes, and before I shuffle off this mortal coil if you could see your way clear to pry open your strong box and send this minor masterpiece whizzing through the film exchanges of America, you would not only have earned my undying gratitude but that of the United Nations, the popcorn dealers of America and three RKO stockholders who at the moment are trying to escape from the Mellon Bank of Pittsurgh." We're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at bbender@politico.com, and follow on Twitter @bryandbender, @morningdefense and @politicopro. | | | | A message from Northrop Grumman: We provide powerful, scalable networks and integrated capabilities that ensure warfighters and the systems they depend on can act as one joint force across every domain, service and mission. Learn more | | |
| | | NDAA TALKS ADVANCE: The House on Wednesday appointed its slate of negotiators to craft a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act. In all, 53 Democrats and 30 Republicans were named from the Armed Services Committee and 17 other panels. The House also voted by unanimous consent to form a conference committee with the Senate. Check the list: Democratic conferees | Republican conferees Earlier in the day, House and Senate negotiators held their first official session, known as the "pass the gavel" meeting, where lawmakers discussed their priorities for the defense bill behind closed doors. An "essential priority": Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged retaining provisions to rename bases that honor Confederate leaders that are in both House and Senate bills in the face of a veto threat from President Donald Trump. "It is imperative that the conference report include provisions that secure this essential priority," she said in a statement. "Our bases should reflect our highest ideals as Americans." "DOWNRIGHT IRRESPONSIBLE": "A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday introduced measures to block the Trump administration's proposed weapons sale to the United Arab Emirates, calling it a dangerous move that could weaken Israel and lead to an arms race in the region," POLITICO's Andrew Desiderio reports. "As I tried to warn the Trump administration, circumventing deliberative processes for considering a massive infusion of weapons to a country in a volatile region with multiple ongoing conflicts is downright irresponsible," Sen. Bob Menendez said in a statement. Democrats have also argued that the current White House should not be making major foreign policy moves during the transition period that could hamstring the incoming Biden administration. "A sale this large and this consequential should not happen in the waning days of a lame duck presidency, and Congress must take steps to stop this dangerous transfer of weapons," Sen. Chris Murphy said. | 
Sen. Chris Murphy speaks during a Senate panel hearing. | Anna Moneymaker/New York Times, Pool via AP | Menendez and Murphy were joined by Republican Rand Paul in introducing four joint resolutions that would prevent the $23 billion arms deal from moving forward: 18 Reaper drones, up to 50 F-35 jets, air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground munitions. On the House side, Rep. Ilhan Omar will also introduce three separate resolutions to block the sales, our colleague Jacqueline Feldscher reports. "Since he took office, Donald Trump has empowered some of the worst human rights abusers in the world — and the UAE is no exception," she said in a statement. "Amidst a deadly pandemic, we should be investing in our own communities here at home, not selling weapons to help dictators commit human rights abuses." The president can use emergency authorities to transfer weapons to foreign nations in rare circumstances, but Congress has wide latitude over arms sales. Related: On arms sales to dictators and the Yemen war, progressives see a way in with Biden, via The Intercept. "WE'RE LOSING THIS ARGUMENT": Democrats don't have a winning message in the fight to curtail spending and reshape policy when it comes to nuclear weapons, House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith told a disarmament group on Wednesday. "We're losing this argument at the moment," Smith told the Ploughshares Fund's annual policy forum. "We didn't win the Senate like we hoped. We didn't win the House seats that we should've won. We didn't have a message that could win a large turnout election." Smit, while he has optimistic President-elect Joe Biden will revisit Trump's nuclear policies, said Democrats still need to win and keep swing districts and Senate seats to enshrine major changes into law, such as a no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons. "A lot of the message within the anti-nuclear groups is 'We've got to get rid of nuclear weapons.' That's not a winning message," Smith added. "Deterrence is the argument. We have to reduce the number of nuclear weapons so we can adequately deter our adversaries but not have unnecessary spending and unnecessary risk." | | | Frank Kendall, former undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, and a top adviser to Biden, will participate in a discussion hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Defense and Aerospace Export Council at 3:30 p.m. | | | "THE GREATEST GAME": POLITICO is again partnering with the Halifax Security Forum, the leading annual gathering of top military and government officials devoted to strengthening ties between the world's democracies. The forum kicks off Friday in a virtual format and a major theme is how to band together to keep China's global authoritarianism in check. On Friday, in the plenary session titled "China vs. Democracy: The Greatest Game," Luiza Savage, POLITICO's executive director for editorial initiatives, will interview Adm. Philip Davidson, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and moderate a panel featuring Emily Lau, former chairperson of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong; Sen. Chris Coons; and Liam Fox of the U.K. House of Commons, beginning at 11:30 a.m. On Sunday, in the plenary titled "75 Years On: Re-Making The Democratic World Order," Jeanne Meserve will interview retired Marine Gen. John Allen, president of the Brookings Institution, and moderate a panel featuring Defense Minister Radmila Shekerinska of North Macedonia and Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison, the U.S. permanent representative to NATO, at 10 a.m. "The real China challenge for the world's democracies is how to cooperate effectively with each other," Peter Van Praagh, the forum's president, tells us. "... Now is the time for democracies to modernize the international system created upon victory 75 years ago to ensure that peace, prosperity and freedom are readily within reach."
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| | | MORE THAN A CARETAKER: Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller has only 62 days left to carry out his duties as Trump's Pentagon chief. But he's not acting like a caretaker and is seeking quick policy changes that Biden is unlikely to overturn, our colleague Lara Seligman reports. Among Miller's top priorities is elevating the needs of America's elite special operations forces — Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, Marine Raiders — experts say. During a visit to Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday, Miller announced he is elevating the top civilian Pentagon official overseeing special operations matters, establishing a direct reporting line to the defense secretary and putting the position roughly on par with the civilian leaders of the military branches. "If you look at the last close to decade of his career, [Miller] has been heavily involved in oversight of special operations," said Luke Hartig, who worked on counterterrorism at the NSC in the Obama administration. "This is an opportunity for him to put his stamp on what he thinks that ought to look like." The move came a day after Miller announced the U.S. will rapidly draw down to 2,500 troops by Jan. 15 in both Afghanistan and Iraq. That has put him at odds with Trump allies on Capitol Hill who worry that a hasty withdrawal based on a political calendar could destabilize security conditions in Afghanistan. Read Miller's speech at Fort Bragg. "EXPANDED TARGET SET": Greater oversight of covert operations is sorely needed, according to a report to be released today by the Center for Civilians in Conflict and the Stimson Center that urges greater accountability for the CIA's paramilitary operations and targeted killings of suspected terrorists. "Over the last 20 years, options for using lethal force once seen as exceptional have become more common, more geographically widespread, and easier to use," says the report, titled "Exception(s) To The Rule(s)," citing secret operations in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Niger, Libya, Somalia and Pakistan. The Trump administration's removal of the requirement for high-level approval of these missions "allows for an expanded target set to include lower-level members of targeted groups," it adds, making it "even easier for the President to use force in secret, against more groups, in more places." End the CIA's drone war: The authors urge the next administration to "finalize the transfer of authority for the U.S. government's armed drone program to the Defense Department." They also say any new presidential findings for covert operations "include measures to mitigate the risk of enabling human rights violations." Meanwhile, Congress should "conduct regular oversight hearings on the use of lethal force, civilian casualties, and security cooperation activities, and request briefings on the next administration's strategy and basis for covert action," the report urges. | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION, SUBSCRIBE TO TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: As states certify their election results, President-elect Biden is building an administration. The staffing decisions made in the coming days, weeks, and months will send clear-cut signals about his administration's agenda and priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to what could be one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Stay in the know, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | JAPAN STORMS WASHINGTON: The Center for International Policy's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative is out with a new report today unwinding Japan's "massive influence operation in the U.S." and Tokyo's heavy emphasis on securing advanced American weapons. The report tracks 51 different firms registered as foreign agents that were paid $32 million in 2019 by the Japanese government. "U.S. Foreign Military Sales to Japan are worth roughly $11 billion annually, and at least 90% of Japan's defense acquisitions are bought from American firms," the report says. "Military and strategic defense alignment was a major reason for activities by Japanese hired firms, especially to Congress." | | | | A message from Northrop Grumman: In modern missions, communication and coordination is always a challenge – and getting it right can mean the difference between mission success and failure. At Northrop Grumman, we've been taking on this challenge for decades and the result is a scalable, adaptable suite of joint all-domain command and control networks and capabilities. Our products ensure the entire joint force, from troops to weapons systems can act as one across every mission and military service. Because tomorrow's mission success depends on acting as one. Learn more about how we're enabling the joint force. | | | | | | — Sen. Purdue helped defense contractor — and sold off it's stock: The Daily Beast — Keep U.S. Space Command where it is: Forbes — Army to review discharges for soldiers kicked out for suicide attempts and sexual assault trauma: The Washington Post — The U.S. Navy's loss of command of the seas and how to regain it: Texas National Security Review — Naval drills in the Indian Ocean give bite to the anti-China "Quad": The Economist — Special Report: The China Dilemma: The Catalyst — Engaging North Korea anew: Foreign Affairs — U.S. hits Iran with new sanctions: The Associated Press — Israel strikes widely in Syria: Reuters — U.N. pulling Americans from northern Yemen ahead of Houthi terrorist designation: Foreign Policy — Bill Belichick calls on U.S. to take action against Turkey, Azerbaijan for attacks on Armenians: CBS Boston — LISTEN: What Joe Biden's presidency means for Afghanistan: NPR | | | | 2020 HALIFAX INTERNATIONAL SECURITY FORUM: Tune in as international security leaders from democracies around the world discuss key challenges at the 12th annual Halifax International Security Forum . As an official media partner, POLITICO will livestream conversation beginning at 11:30 a.m. on November 20. | | | | |
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