WASHINGTON, D.C. – With wars raging in both Ukraine and the Middle East, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced legislation to safeguard U.S. military stockpiles from being depleted and maintain American war-fighting readiness.
Lee recently introduced the Safeguarding Our Stockpiles (SOS) Act to restore the original intent of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) and ensure that U.S. Military stockpiles are not raided without adequate safeguards.
“We cannot risk America’s military readiness to fund unchecked foreign interventions,” Lee said, after introducing the SOS Act in the Senate.
“Presidential Drawdown Authority was meant to address short-term, unforeseen emergencies, not serve as a long-term strategy that leaves our own defenses vulnerable.”
Originally enacted in 1961 as part of the Foreign Assistance Act, the text of the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) Act confirms Lee’s position that it was only intended to allow the president to transfer defense equipment from U.S. stockpiles to meet unforeseen emergencies.
The law specifically authorizes such transfers in cases of “unforeseen events or ones so uncertain that it would be inappropriate to budget for them” and “situations where the only alternatives were to do nothing.”
Almost from its enactment, however, the PDA has been abused by the executive branch of government.
During the 1960s, the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson stripped U.S. Army Europe stockpiles of ammunition and equipment intended for defense against a Soviet invasion of Europe to equip South Vietnamese military units.
Most of those stockpiles were not replaced until the 1970s, but were then depleted again to rearm the Israeli Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
Those PDA transfers to Israel – mostly arms and ammunition — were not replaced until the 1980s under the defense build-up initiated by President Ronald Reagan.
Nor are Ukraine and Israel the only recent recipients of military transfers under the overused PDA.
In 2023, the Biden administration announced that it was sending Taiwan $345 million of military aid, according to reports by analysts Mark F. Cancian and Bonny Lin of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
Equipment in those PDA transfers included “man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles.”
Receiving military aid does not make Taiwan unique — the United States routinely provides military aid to over 150 allies and partners globally. However, receiving large amounts of aid from existing U.S. stockpiles is unusual, because those shipments were expected to arrive in Taiwan quickly.
But PDA shipments to Taiwan are a drop in the bucket compared to those going to Ukraine.
Since 2021, according to members of Lee’s staff, the U.S. has authorized nearly $24 billion in defense transfers to Ukraine through PDA, drawing down U.S. defense stockpiles in 57 separate instances.
Those consistent drawdowns for Ukraine violate the original intent of the PDA – which included a cap of $100 million per transfer – and threaten the readiness of the U.S. military in potential higher-priority theaters of engagement.
Lee’s proposed legislation would put critical guardrails on future uses of PDA transfers by defining unforeseen emergencies as instances where an attack on a U.S. treaty ally poses an imminent threat to U.S. security interests; by prioritizing stockpile replacement; and sunsetting drawdowns at the end of each fiscal year to prevent the misuse of PDA authority.
Lee’s SOS Act also mandates that Congress approve any drawdown transfer in excess of the statutory limit of $100 million and authorize sufficient funding to replace U.S. military stockpiles.
“The SOS Act,” Lee added, “would require accountability and ensure that we are always prepared to defend our own homeland.”