ABSTRACT
Even though Congress shirks many of its responsibilities for national defense, as when it passes the “continuing resolution” budgets, it pretty much always manages to logroll its way to a policy bill. This chapter considers the ways interests, foreign and domestic, try to use the defense budget and US policy for their own ends. Congress sometimes holds hearings to investigate the crisis du jour, generally after the crisis is over, when it’s time for political recriminations. But it mostly works on long-term issues such as budgets, force structure, personnel policy, and confirmation debates that discuss the strategic preferences of high-level appointees. Congress turns out not to be very brave, for it is reluctant to oversee a president’s national security policies, surely fearing the consequences of being held responsible for military operations it cannot possibly control. There is, supposedly, no greater certainty than death and taxes, but not if the US Congress is involved.
