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COLORADO SPRINGS—House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) is ready to take the White House’s opening fiscal 2027 defense spending bid as the new minimum funding level.
The Trump administration’s $1.15 trillion target for discretionary defense spending, unveiled April 3, will become “the new baseline” and marks a 35% increase over the enacted 2025 budget, Rogers said at an April 12 meeting of space government and industry stakeholders, to kick off the Space Foundation’s annual Space Symposium here.
That does not include an additional $350 billion the White House wants to fund via reconciliation, nor an expected supplemental request for Operation Epic Fury, Rogers noted.
In setting that new threshold, Congress is prepared to continue working with the Pentagon and its industry partners on acquisition reform, to make sure companies can then deliver at speed and scale, while also taking advantage of the “enormous” amounts of private capital going into defense capabilities, he said.
Rogers and other Republican lawmakers have praised the Trump administration’s record-setting budget request since its release. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers have largely criticized the White House’s plans to bolster the defense budget while cutting back on non-defense spending.
But Rogers expressed confidence that the top line would move forward, noting that Congress seldom cuts baseline budgets.
Industry partners at the stakeholder meeting said they are prepared to accelerate production of space systems to support a proposed plus-up of the U.S. Space Force’s budget, so long as strong financial signals continue to flow. L3Harris Technologies Vice President of Engineering and Innovation Ed Zoiss pointed to the Pentagon’s recently announced multiyear procurement contracts for munitions, and suggested a similar strategic framework could be struck to procure space capabilities.
New Sierra Space CEO Dan Jablonsky warned that without strong financial commitments, the U.S. could lose momentum on building space systems, reminiscent of the way the nation’s shipbuilding industry has faltered and its critical minerals supply is under stress.
“If we don’t pay attention at this … very critical time, we’ll start to lose that advantage that we have in the space domain,” he said.
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