The Senate Armed Services Committee on June 5 released its version of a $150 billion defense-related portion of the larger reconciliation funding bill that President Trump is trying to push through Congress, reflecting support for the Golden Dome missile defense program and an uptick of funding for the U.S. Space Force.
While both the House and Senate appear to be aligning on the bill’s broad objectives –increasing overall defense spending and accelerating strategic priorities – the legislation still faces significant political hurdles.
Republicans are attempting to advance the measure through reconciliation, a budgetary tool that allows for bypassing Democratic opposition in the Senate. However, some GOP lawmakers have expressed reservations about certain provisions, signaling that consensus is not guaranteed between House and Senate Republicans.
“The House and Senate are very, very close in the provisions,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., during a Defense Writers Group event on June 4. “The difficult portions of reconciliation, and the things that might trip it up … are really in other parts of the bill.”
The Senate bill matches several headline figures from the House version, including $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system, $12 billion for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and $9 billion to address quality-of-life concerns for service members.
But it deviates from the House’s approved figures in other priorities.
Unlike the House version, the Senate bill proposes significantly more funding for military space programs. Billions more would go toward broad provisions for space sensors and missile development.
Specifically, the U.S. Space Force stands to benefit from the Senate version, with $5.1 billion allocated for classified space superiority programs — over $1 billion more than in the House bill. The bill also includes $150 million for ground target-tracking satellites, compared to $100 million in the House version. Additionally, it adds $7.2 billion for military space sensors and $5.6 billion for space-based and boost-phase missile interceptors, though it remains unclear how much of that would be administered by the Space Force.
The Senate bill will be folded into the chamber’s version of the sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill” – a legislative package designed to advance a broad array of Trump administration priorities. The Senate aims to vote on the measure in the coming weeks, with hopes of sending the final version to President Donald Trump by July 4.
The military funding authorized in the reconciliation bill is set to be spent through the end of fiscal year 2034.
While Wicker has praised the legislation as a much-needed push to “increase defense spending,” he emphasized that the $150 billion package is intended for long-term use and should not replace consistent annual increases to the defense budget.
The Trump administration appears to take a different view. When combined with the administration’s proposed $893 billion in baseline defense funding, the $150 billion reconciliation boost would push total defense spending above the $1 trillion mark for the first time.
“I don’t think the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] recommendation is close to getting us where we need to be,” he told reporters. “And it would not be uncommon to see a vastly different number coming out of the Congress. In fact, we have the power of the purse and we’re going to try to accommodate.”
The Senate’s version of the bill will now await floor consideration, after which it must be reconciled with the House’s version, before reaching the President’s desk.