Top military leaders face Congress over Pentagon budget and questions on Israel and Ukraine support

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr. testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about the Pentagon's $850 billion budget for 2025 as questions remained as to whether lawmakers will support current spending needs for Israel or Ukraine.

The Senate hearing was the first time lawmakers on both sides were able to question the Pentagon's top civilian and military leadership on the administration's Israel strategy following Tel Aviv's deadly strike on World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers in Gaza. It also follows continued desperate pleas by Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that if the U.S. does not help soon, Kyiv will lose the war to Russia.

In their opening statements, both Austin and Brown emphasized that their 2025 budget is still shaped with the military's long-term strategic goal in mind — to ready forces and weapons for a potential future conflict with China. About $100 billion of this year's request is set aside for new space, nuclear weapons and cyber warfare systems the military says it must invest in now before Beijing's capabilities surpass it.

But the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel are challenging a deeply-divided Congress and have resulted in months of delays in getting last year's defense budget through, which was only passed by lawmakers a few weeks ago.