HASC Approves Reconciliation Package with $25 Billion for Golden Dome

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) approved the reconciliation package it crafted with the Senate Armed Services Committee to spend an additional $150 billion on defense through FY2034. It is the first step in a process to enact President Trump’s agenda to cut government spending, but at the same time make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, provide additional tax cuts, and add spending for defense, energy and border security. The bill includes about $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile shield that envisions space-based interceptors.

HASC and SASC released their joint draft package on Sunday night.  Increased investment in space activities were specifically mentioned in two places in their section-by-section analysis: Sec. 20003 (Golden Dome) and Sec. 20009 (INDOPACOM).

Originally called Iron Dome in Trump’s January 27, 2025 Executive Order, Golden Dome is Trump’s plan to build a missile defense shield similar to what President Ronald Reagan proposed in the 1980s. Then called the Strategic Defense Initiative, critics referred to it as Star Wars because it envisioned space-based weapons including space-based lasers destroying missiles during the boost and mid-course phases.

The technology wasn’t ready at the time, but the Trump Administration believes the time is right now. Many aspects of the missile defense shield are air-, land- or sea-based, but the space-based portion would include the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Layer (HBTSS), the custody layer of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, and proliferated space-based interceptors.

This bill includes $24.7 billion for Golden Dome.  Shipbuilding and the Maritime Industrial Base was the only category to receive more, $33.7 billion.

The bill passed today by a vote of 35-21.  Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) said:

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore our national security by revitalizing our production capacity, investing in our servicemembers, and laying the foundation for the president’s Golden Dome. This legislation ensures that our national defense remains the strongest in the world and supports an agile and modern fighting force.” — Rep. Mike Rogers

The top Democrat, or Ranking Member, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), voted against the bill.  He agreed on the need to invest more in defense, but objected to giving DOD another $150 billion in addition to the $900 billion it already has for FY2025 without knowing what the Administration will request for FY2026. That “defies common sense” and will be paid for by “devastating cuts” from other government programs like Medicaid.

“There is clear bipartisan support for investing in defense spending that supports the quality of life of our service members and their families, readiness, innovation, and modernization. The ideal process for considering these investments should be through the normal authorization and appropriations process. Today’s markup hearing was anything but that.” — Rep. Adam Smith

Reconciliation legislation is a special type of legislation that cannot be filibustered in the Senate.  It reconciles guidance in the recently-passed Budget Resolution with actual spending and is separate from the appropriations process.

Other committees in the House and Senate must also come up with proposals to cut or add. Each chamber is then expected to bundle their committees’ proposals into a single bill on each side.  The identical measure must pass both chambers before it can be sent to the President to sign.  How long that will take is unknown.  Memorial Day has been mentioned as a target, but that seems unlikely.

In the end, deep reductions are expected in non-defense spending, like NASA, to compensate for increases in defense, energy and border security and a loss of government revenue from the tax cuts, but how it will all turn out is impossible to forecast at this stage.