READY TO RUMBLE? — Congress is diving headfirst this week into foreign policy after a packed schedule of CODELS over the recess. There are a half dozen hearings on the Hill today about either China or Ukraine, two of the most consuming topics in American foreign policy that one key player says are more connected than might meet the eye. Tied together: Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) says that Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the threat posed by China are inextricable, “you just can't isolate them from each other,” he said Monday night. Gallagher, chair of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, is gearing up for the panel’s first primetime hearing tonight where he plans to lay out “Why the Chinese Communist Party is a threat why someone in Northeast Wisconsin should care about.” But first, he’ll be trying to get a question in at the House Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. military support to Ukraine. He’s eagerly awaiting the Defense Department’s required quarterly report on munition stockpiles, but admits that the Pentagon tends “to be late on everything.” He’ll be asking about the Pentagon’s ability, in real time, to track weapons in the U.S. arsenal, on the move to Ukraine or promised to other nations. “That's going to be critical because having just returned from Taiwan, these are a lot of the same weapon systems we need to deliver Taiwan. In many cases the Taiwanese have bought them. They've been approved but they haven't been delivered,” he said Monday night. “We need to completely rebuild the arsenal of democracy and replenish our stockpiles. And so I am most fixated on how we do that when it comes to key weapon systems,” Gallagher said. He said the war has “exposed the fragility of our defense industrial base and munitions industries.” Spending stress: Replenishing stockpiles, frankly, means convincing some of his GOP colleagues to not fixate on slashing defense spending or halting Ukraine aid. Earlier this month, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a resolution (pretty much non-binding, but useful to take the temperature of the House) to express the sense of the chamber that the U.S. should end its military and financial aid to Ukraine, and urge all sides to reach a peace agreement. It has just 10 cosponsors at this point. But that won’t be his approach on Tuesday. Gaetz said that he’ll be zeroed in on compliance with reporting requirements and “end-to-end monitoring” of what the U.S. sends to Ukraine. “I think it's an oversight hearing on Ukraine. So I'm not one to really criticize the lack of oversight hearings on Ukraine on the eve of an oversight hearing,” he said Monday night. Others are urging House leadership to put defense dollars on the table in negotiations over the debt limit and reigning in future spending levels. Gallagher is preparing his counterargument: “You can make the argument to people that by supporting the effort in Ukraine, you're actually bolstering deterrence across the Taiwan Strait and preventing World War Three,” said Gallagher. “That, to me, is a compelling argument.” Live in primetime… Gallagher said his own panel’s hearing tonight will be a sweeping introduction into the issue of the CCP as a threat and how that relates to regular Americans who might see themselves as insulated from most foreign policy decisions. “We're trying to be a little innovative with incorporating video into the committee,” he said, previewing a multimedia experience similar to what a certain other select committee leaned into last Congress. “We’ve selected witnesses that we think are very charismatic, that will communicate this in a compelling way.” Gallagher also wants to talk about missteps and examine “what we got wrong about the party in the past so that … our policy can be more effective going forward,” he said. ‘No bomb throwers’: Gallagher wants to talk weapons, but is glad his panel’s roster doesn’t have its own explosive personalities. “If you look at the members of our committee – Republicans and Democrats – there's no bomb throwers, there's no people that are going to leverage their five minutes to get a viral video,” said Gallagher. He said he hopes the panel can start tonight to “distinguish ourselves through the seriousness and the sobriety with which we conduct our questioning.” SO MANY HEARINGS:
- HASC holds a hearing at 10 a.m. featuring testimony from Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch, DoD policy chief Colin Kahl and Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims of the Joint Staff. It's the first public hearing under the GOP majority on aid to Ukraine.
- The House Defense Appropriations subcommittee meets at 2 p.m. on Ukraine aid with testimony from Sims and Celeste Wallander, the Pentagon's top international security official.
- On the Senate side, SASC also holds a hearing on the conflict in Ukraine at 9:30 a.m.
- House Foreign Affairs Committee hears testimony from administration officials on the "generational challenge" of the Chinese Communist Party at 10 a.m. The same panel will mark up a bill at 2 p.m. on holding China responsible for the surveillance balloon.
- House Science, Space and Technology Committee holds a hearing on how competition with China shapes the U.S. National Science and Technology Strategy
RELATED READS: Congress turns attention to oversight of Ukraine aid, from Mark Satter at CQ Roll Call; Janet Yellen visits Ukraine and pledges even more U.S. economic aid, from NPR; New China committee debuts with eye on major policy shifts, from Kevin Freking at The Associated Press
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