Pentagon to use new Taiwan arms transfer authority, similar to Ukraine
By Bryant Harris
Thursday, Apr 6
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department wants to take full advantage of the authorities Congress recently granted to transfer arms to Taiwan, but first it needs the lawmakers who control the purse strings to follow through with hard cash.
Congress greenlighted $3 billion in total annual military aid to Taiwan as part of the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill through accounts managed by both the Pentagon and the State Department. But for the most part, Congress did not approve funding for those authorities in its FY23 spending bill. In recent weeks, senior Pentagon officials have started calling on congressional appropriators to allocate the funding they require to begin using Taiwan military aid authorities.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 28 that the Pentagon intends to use a $1 billion authorization to transfer weapons to Taiwan via presidential drawdown authority — the same mechanism the Biden administration has used to transfer equipment to Ukraine. He noted that the administration would put forth a funding request to backfill weapons systems sent to Taiwan under presidential drawdown.
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2023/04/06/pentagon-to-use-new-taiwan-arms-transfer-authority-similar-to-ukraine/
