By Leo Shane III, Military Times
As voters head to poll stations across the country today, their decisions will have lasting ramifications for the military for years to come.
Individual congressional races will decide which voices guide national security debate and how many veterans-turned-lawmakers are participating. Together, the results will determine which party controls the House and Senate, and by extension, how the fiscal 2020 defense budget process unfolds.
Here are the defense topics to watch on election night:
Control of the House
Polling experts in recent weeks have been outlining the possibility of a Democratic takeover of the House. If the minority party can pick up 23 seats, they’ll break up the current Republican monopoly in the legislative and executive branches.
They have also promised to revisit Trump’s moves to ban transgender individuals from the military and provide intense scrutiny of his strategy in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe.
Republicans have warned that Democratic dissatisfaction with the president, coupled with control of Congress’ lower chamber, could translate into politically motivated impeachment hearings, which could snarl a host of other legislative priorities and raise the specter of more government shutdowns.
A surge of veterans
The number of veterans serving in Congress has been on a near steady decline since the 1970s, due largely to the decline in the overall veteran population in the country. But the number of lawmakers with military experience could go up after Tuesday.
Even a small rise in veterans number on Capitol Hill would represent a significant shift.
And prominent veterans like former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and former Sen. John McCain in recent years have extolled the need for more veterans in elected office, saying their common military bonds could help transcend some of the partisanship and animosity driving legislative work today.
Defense budget questions
Even with one party in control of the White House, Senate and House, the fiscal 2018 defense budget was overdue by six months, forcing Pentagon officials to operate off continuing resolutions for an extended period. They lamented the spending constraints hurt long-term planning and short-term readiness.
Now the question becomes whether the election will help or hurt that problem next year.
Lawmakers and Trump will have to reach a deal to circumvent spending caps set to automatically trigger in fiscal 2020, and what newly elected members of Congress say in the aftermath of the election could have major consequences for that negotiation.
Already, a number of conservative candidates have stumped for continuing Trump’s promise of rapidly growing the military budget, while far-left hopefuls have campaigned on reining in the defense largess. After the votes are counted, those budget battle lines could form quickly.
