With Connor O’Brien

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PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Defense will not publish on Friday June 18. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Monday June 21.

Quick fix

— The Pentagon is weighing a standing naval task force to confront Chinese military mischief.

— The House Armed Services Committee announces its plan for marking up the defense policy bill.

— It’s time to break up the Department of Homeland Security, according to a new study out today.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we are curious to see what leaks out of this classified briefing on Capitol Hill today. We live in interesting times. We're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email protected], and follow on Twitter @bryandbender, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

On the Hill

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The House Armed Services Committee plans to begin consideration of its version of the National Defense Authorization Act in late July, with the full panel set to mark up the annual policy bill in September, our colleague Connor O’Brien reports for Pros.

The Sept. 1 committee markup is the latest in recent memory, and comes after President Joe Biden delivered his fiscal 2022 budget last month. It means that lawmakers have little chance of concluding a defense bill by the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year.

Go deeper: The full NDAA markup schedule.

Appropriations action: House appropriators, meanwhile, are set to begin their work on spending bills this month, POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes reports for Pros.

The Appropriations Committee is aiming to approve all 12 annual government funding bills by mid-July, as Democratic leaders look to pass the bulk of those bills before the August recess.

The Defense Appropriations Subcommittee will hold a markup on its Pentagon spending bill on June 30. The full House Appropriations Committee will consider the bill on July 13.

UNDER FIRE: Military leaders got a grilling from oversight committees on Tuesday over their budget proposals.

“Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker came under intense fire from lawmakers Tuesday for his suggestion the Navy cut a new nuclear cruise missile from the fiscal 2023 budget,” our colleague Paul McLeary reports for Pros.

“Are you aware as you were drafting this memo that the president of the United States is sitting down with Vladimir Putin this very month?” defense hawk Rep. Mike Turner asked. “Do you realize the extent to which you have undermined President Biden, and the United States, in indicating that a weapon system that is nuclear is going to be unilaterally defunded without any negotiations or without receiving any concessions from Russia?"

Harker, whose June 4 memo recommended the program not be continued next year, insisted that no final decision has been made, pending the upcoming Nuclear Posture Review. "Once that guidance comes, we will adjust accordingly,” Harker told the panel.

‘We are not weak’: In the same hearing, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday also pushed back against GOP lawmakers who cited his decision to recommend sailors read a book about racism in accusing the military of growing weak by focusing too much on diversity, CNN reported.

“What this is really about is trying to paint the United States military, and in this case, the United States Navy, as weak, as woke," Gilday told lawmakers. "We are not weak."

‘Gutted’: Army leaders also got an earful in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on their budget request, which amounts to a 2 percent cut, Connor reports for Pros.

“Senators in both parties expressed concerns about the risk of the Army's budget, though it's unclear how lawmakers plan to parcel out funding between the services if they plow ahead with President Joe Biden's $715 billion proposed defense topline,” he writes.

"You guys are getting gutted," Sen. Dan Sullivan told Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. "Let's call it like it is."

Wormuth and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville both pointed to the service’s list of unfunded priorities sent to Congress this month. "I laid out our requirements. We have our budget and then we have our unfunded requirements ... that lay out if we can get additional money, that's where we want to put it," McConville said. "And we would like to get that additional money."

Related: Why House Democrats set government funding $17B below Biden’s budget, via POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma.

Happening Today

The SASC holds a nomination hearing for Meredith Berger to be assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment; Shawn Skelly to be assistant secretary of defense for readiness; Ely Ratner to be assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs; Gina Ortiz Jones to be undersecretary of the Air Force; and Caroline Krass to be Pentagon general counsel at 10 a.m.

The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee holds a budget hearing on military construction programs at 10 a.m.

And HASC holds a budget hearing with acting Air Force Secretary John Roth, Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown and Space Force chief Gen. Jay Raymond at 11 a.m.

China

MORE ‘OOMPH’: “The Pentagon is considering establishing a permanent naval task force in the Pacific region as a counter to China’s growing military might,” our colleague Lara Seligman reports for Pros.

The proposal, which is not finalized, also calls for giving the operation a name to allow the defense secretary to allocate more resources, she reports, citing people with knowledge of the deliberations.

“The task force and the named operation suggest to me that they are going to elevate the oomph and the power of the Western Pacific oriented force,” said Elbridge Colby, a former Trump Pentagon official, contending it would allow commanders to compete better for resources with counterparts in the Middle East.

If the task force “is focused on the Western Pacific, whether it’s focused on China explicitly or implicitly, it’s got bureaucratic oomph to say ‘hey, no [Central Command], just because you have a knee-jerk reaction to something happening you can’t steal our assets,” he said.

“We are looking at a number of proposals in the Indo-Pacific and across the Department, to better synchronize and coordinate our activities,” said a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “However, as the Secretary said, now is the time to get to work, there are many details and specifics still to be finalized.”

The planning takes place as the Biden administration is facing criticism in Congress that it’s not doing enough to confront Beijing’s military aggression in the region.

And: China, its military might expanding, accuses NATO of hypocrisy, via The New York Times.

Biden-Putin Summit

‘CALCULATED RISK’: Biden is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin today in Switzerland in what advisers are describing as a “calculated risk” to try to stabilize a dangerous relationship with one of America’s most intractable nuclear adversaries, POLITICO’s Anita Kumar reports from Geneva.

“Restoring diplomatic presence, that's a good thing,” said Michael McFaul, former ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama. “But I think the bulk of the meeting should be about our disagreements, because that’s the bulk of what it is right now.”

Indeed, don’t expect Biden to make nice with the Russian leader as former President Donald Trump did, nor to seek a reboot of relations like Obama.

“They’re not doing a reset like Obama did,” predicted Daniel Fried, a former ambassador to Poland who served in the White House and State Department. “They haven't made those kinds of mistakes, but Putin is still making it difficult for them because of his relentless aggression.”

Related: Five key challenges in U.S.-Russian relations, via CNA.

And: How Biden can leverage missile defense in his summit with Putin, via Defense One.

Homeland Security

FIRST LOOK — ‘MIXED RESULTS’: The Department of Homeland Security, when Congress “shoee-horned” multiple bureaucracies under one agency after the 2001 terrorist attacks, is in desperate need of reform, according to a study out today from the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

“Observers across the political spectrum have argued that, in the rush to stand up a new department, disparate components of the federal bureaucracy were shoe-horned into DHS, with mixed results,” it says. “Today’s DHS claims a role in most national security issues — and a number of issues that fall outside of national security — but there are few areas where DHS leads the government’s response and even fewer where it does so well and without controversy.”

One major recommendation: “DHS components that are primarily or exclusively focused on enforcing federal laws should be transferred to other federal departments.”

Speed Read

— Biden to nominate nine ambassadors, including to NATO: The White House

— GAO: Biden didn’t break the law with border wall pause: POLITICO

— Pentagon’s anti-extremism moves now part of a larger national strategy: Military Times

— U.S. military guns keep vanishing, some used in street crimes: The Associated Press

— Space Force to reuse Falcon 9 booster for GPS III launch: Air Force Magazine

— The Navy’s railgun is finally dead: Popular Mechanics

— Fixing oversight of special operations forces: War on the Rocks

— Reimagining the Open Skies Treaty: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

— Meet NATO, the dangerous ‘defensive’ alliance trying to run the world: The Intercept

— Biden’s exit from Afghanistan has been very Trumpy: The Washington Post

— Biden’s priorities: Trillions for domestic spending, not a cent more for defense: National Review

—‘Top Gun’ is an infomercial for America: The Atlantic

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