Roll Call: “Defense spending appeared set for a larger-than-authorized increase in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 as part of a ‘framework’ appropriators agreed to Wednesday, though the pact’s contents remained a mystery as stakeholders scrambled to figure out what’s in store for a massive omnibus package being written in secret.”

“Speculation was rife on Capitol Hill and K Street that national defense and related programs would see a $30 billion boost above President Joe Biden’s budget request, or $5 billion more than even the fiscal 2022 defense authorization law outlined.”

“This horrible terrorist leader is no more.”

— President Biden, quoted by the Washington Post, on the U.S. Special Operations mission overnight in Syria that killed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of the Islamic State.

Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of national intelligence, said “the U.S. intelligence community’s approach to classifying vast amounts of information is so flawed that it harms national security and diminishes public trust in government,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Haines: “It is my view that deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner.”

The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin saying that Russia would consider conducting a cyberattack on the U.S. homeland if Moscow perceived that a U.S. or NATO response to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine “threatened Russia’s long-term national security,” CNN reports.

“The Justice Department is forming a new domestic terrorism unit to help combat a threat that has intensified dramatically in recent years,” the Washington Post reports.

“Matthew Olsen, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, announced the unit in his opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that the number of FBI investigations of suspected domestic violent extremists — accused of planning or committing crimes in the name of domestic political goals — had more than doubled since the spring of 2020.”

Defense contractors “were among the most generous corporate contributors to the campaigns of members of Congress who voted not to certify the 2020 presidential election” even after “some of those companies had halted such payments after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol,” Roll Call reports.

New Yorker: “The stakes extend well beyond Iran. The world’s nuclear order, already perilous, is now at risk of unravelling. Nuclear pacts hammered out in the last century are dated or fraying, as the U.S., Russia, and China modernize their arsenals. The Pentagon estimates that China could have at least a thousand bombs by 2030.”

“The talks with Tehran are designed to prevent a tenth nation—the latest was North Korea, in 2006—from getting the bomb.”

A U.S. military base store sold figurines of Donald Trump holding a “Let’s Go Brandon” sign ahead of the holidays, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

President Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022, which authorizes $770 billion in defense spending, Reuters reports.

“The Marine Corps discharged 66 Marines in the past week for refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine as mandated by the military, outpacing the other services at discipline related to the shots,” the AP reports.

“The latest Corps actions brought the total number of Marines booted out of the service for vaccine refusal to 169.”

Three retired generals write in the Washington Post:

“As we approach the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we — all of us former senior military officials — are increasingly concerned about the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election and the potential for lethal chaos inside our military, which would put all Americans at severe risk.”

“In short: We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time.”

“A National Guardsman who was part of the mob that rampaged through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been sentenced to probation and a fine for his actions, but will avoid jail time,” Military.com reports.

“His state says he’s still in the Guard.”

“Governors from five states have written a joint letter to Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, asking that their National Guard troops be exempted from a federal coronavirus vaccine mandate, greatly escalating what had been a single state conflict over inoculations,” the New York Times reports.

“By an overwhelming margin, the House passed a bill to spend $778 billion on defense next year, $25 billion more than what President Joe Biden had requested. The Senate is expected to second the motion within days,” Slate reports.

“The sum—a five percent increase over last year’s defense bill—amounts to the nation’s largest military-spending bill since World War II, even adjusting for inflation.”

“Yet no officials or lawmakers have spelled out why the budget—which includes $740 billion for the Pentagon and $28 billion for the Energy Department’s nuclear-weapons programs—needs to be quite this huge.”

“Compromise defense policy legislation set to be filed Monday will not require women to register for a military draft, a stunning turnaround after the proposal gained bipartisan support in both the House and Senate this year,” Politico reports.