Overnight Defense: Top Dem backs off request for Israel arms sale delay | Afghanistan withdrawal up to 20 percent done | Esper returns to defense industry

Happy Tuesday and welcome to Overnight Defense. I’m Ellen Mitchell, and here’s your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. CLICK HERE to subscribe to the newsletter.

THE TOPLINE: The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will not request a delay to an arms sale to Israel after the Biden administration agreed to brief lawmakers on the deal, he said Tuesday.

“What we wanted to do is to have a dialogue and conversation,” committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) told reporters Tuesday. “We’re going to have a meeting with the administration tomorrow where the issues and the questions that one may have will be able to be asked, and that was the purpose of considering the letter.”

A day earlier: Meeks’ comments come after he told Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday night he was planning to send a letter to the Biden administration asking for a delay in a recently approved $735 million sale so members could have more time to review it, a congressional aide confirmed to The Hill.

Timing is everything: The administration notified Congress on May 5 it approved the sale to Israel. The bulk of the deal is for Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions that can turn so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided missiles.

The notification set off a 15-day congressional review period in which lawmakers could block the sale. But that window is all but closed now with just three days left in the review period.

The approval for the arms sale came five days before Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, began firing rockets toward Israel in response to Israeli police action at Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam. But it is now eliciting scrutiny amid the escalating violence.

Pushback by progressives: Several Democrats have expressed concern about the administration proceeding with the sale amid the conflict, including Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who said it would be “appalling” for the sale to move forward.

White House defends approach: White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday defended the Biden administration’s approach to the conflict, saying “intensive” diplomatic discussions behind the scenes are the best means of reducing the violence. 

“The president’s objective is clear, which is that he wants to see an end to the violence on the ground, an end to the suffering of the Israeli and Palestinian people,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday. “Our focus and our strategy here is to work through quiet, intensive diplomacy, and he’s been doing this long enough to know the best way to end an international conflict is typically not to debate it in public.” 

Biden administration officials have conducted more than 60 calls to date with Israelis, Palestinians and other regional officials, Psaki noted, including President Biden’s three calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in less than a week.

Biden last spoke with Netanyahu on Monday and expressed support for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but stopped short of backing or publicly urging a cease-fire.

 

More stories from The Hill on the topic:

— Republican resolution supporting Israel signals growing divide with Democrats
 
— Backing Biden, Pelosi calls for cease-fire in Israel
 
— The Hill: COVID-19 testing in Gaza halted by Israeli airstrike
 
— The Hill: Top US general warns of greater destabilization amid Israel-Palestinian violence
 
— Biden’s quiet diplomacy under pressure as Israel-Hamas fighting intensifies
 

AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL UP TO 20 PERCENT DONE

The U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is up to 20 percent complete with a little less than four months left in the effort, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

U.S. forces have shipped out approximately 115 C-17 loads of equipment out of the country, turned over more than 5,000 pieces of equipment to the Defense Logistics Agency to be destroyed, and officially handed over five facilities to the Afghan Ministry of Defense, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

“U.S. Central Command estimates that we have completed between 13-20 percent of the entire retrograde process,” the weekly release notes.

The end goal: The U.S. military has been extracting itself from Afghanistan since May 1 after President Biden in April ordered all troops to be out of the country by Sept. 11 — the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that sparked the fighting.

 

BOOSTING THE SPACE FORCE

For some Americans, the U.S. Space Force is little more than a punchline on Twitter or a Netflix satire with middling reviews.

Retired Col. Bill Woolf is hoping the Space Force Association (SFA) can help change that.

“If the only thing that folks have to reference are late-night comedians or a Netflix series, then that’s a problem,” Woolf, president and founder of the association, said in a recent phone interview with The Hill.

The association was founded in October 2019 — a couple months before the Space Force was officially established as the sixth branch of the U.S. military — with a goal of supporting the nascent service, providing a voice to its members and connecting the space operations community with the private sector.

Read the rest here. 

IN NEW HIRE NEWS…

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper will join the board of directors at Epirus, the company announced Tuesday.

The former Raytheon executive is returning to the defense industry after leaving four years ago to join the Trump administration, first as Army secretary, then later as Pentagon chief.

The Los Angeles-based startup said Esper’s hire “solidifies our ability to bring to market the technology we need to help protect the U.S. warfighter and develop other new applications of our technology for broad commercial use.”

Before entering the Trump administration, Esper was Raytheon’s vice president of government relations from 2010 to 2017.

 

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a markup of H.R.922, the “Crimea Annexation Non-Recognition Act”; H.R.2785, the “Energy Resource Governance Initiative Act of 2021”; Legislation to repeal the 1991 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against Iraq Resolution; and Legislation to repeal the 1957 Middle East Use of Force Authorization, at 10 a.m. in Rayburn House Office Building, room 2172. https://foreignaffairs.house. gov/markups?ID=90C69251-DD4C- 4B55-8B3E-F65545DB798F

President Joe Biden will delivers the commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s graduation ceremony at 11 a.m. in New London, Conn.

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on “Recommendations of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service,” at 11 a.m. in Rayburn, 2118. https://armedservices.house. gov/hearings?ID=D36149D6-0B90- 4FD6-A3FD-0989360FBDEF

U.S. Space Force Director Air Force Col. Robert Bongiovi will speak at the Washington Space Business Roundtable webinar: “How Cutting the Cost and Time to Deploy Spacecraft May Revolutionize Military Space Planning,” at 12 p.m. https://www.wsbr.org/events/virtual-program-with-col-robert-bongiovi/?utm_source=Daily%20on%20Defense%20051821_05/18/2021&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_Daily%20on%20Defense&rid=78393

A Senate Appropriations subcommittee will hear from Defense officials on “Military Infrastructure and Climate Resilience,” at 3 p.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 192. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/military-infrastructure-and-climate-resilience

A Senate Armed Services subpanel will hold a hearing on the atomic defense activities and programs in review of the Defense Authorization Request for FY2022 and future years defense program, at 4:30 p.m. in Russell Senate Office Building, room 232-A. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/department-of-energys-atomic-defense-activities-and-programs-in-review-of-the-defense-authorization-request-for-fiscal-year-2022-and-future-years-defense-program

The National Defense Industrial Association will hold its virtual 2021 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, with Katie Arrington, chief information security officer for acquisition and sustainment in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, at 4:40 p.m. https://www.sofic.org/?utm_source=Daily%20on%20Defense%20051821_05/18/2021&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_Daily%20on%20Defense&rid=78393

 

ICYMI

— The Hill: GOP splits open over Jan. 6 commission vote
 
— The Hill: China resisting nuclear talks, US ambassador says
 
— The Hill: Two Navy training jets collide over South Texas, 1 person injured
 
— Three Guantánamo Bay detainees cleared for release
 
— The Hill: Opinion: Nation-states must bear responsibility for their cyber criminals

— The Hill: Opinion: Border surge includes people from countries other than Central America, highlighting terror threat
 
— Military Times: Pentagon pushes back on report of anti-extremism social media surveillance program
 
— The Associated Press: US-Russia showdown looms as top diplomats meet in Iceland
 
— Stars and Stripes: Fort Gordon brigade commander fired over misconduct allegations