Senate GOP quietly seeks to curb Trump troop moves from Europe

Republicans in Congress are quietly trying to take back influence from the Trump administration when it comes to the U.S. role in NATO, as lawmakers seek to assert further control through legislation. 

The Senate Armed Services Committee is moving to curb President Trump’s power to remove troops from Europe, as the White House reportedly plans to draw down its commitment of air support to European countries. 

The annual defense policy bill contains several provisions that would prevent the Pentagon from using funds to reduce the number of American troops in Europe below 76,000 without providing Congress with a justification well beforehand. It comes as Trump has, in recent weeks, moved to cancel deployments of troops headed for Germany and Poland.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the panel, said Republicans on the committee backed those measures in the 1,500-page bill because they, too, want to keep supporting NATO with consistent American troops. 

“All of us recognize the critical nature of NATO in terms of global stability, and many of the things the president is doing is undermining our relationship with NATO and our ability to deter the Russians,” Reed said. “We’re sending a clear signal … we have to maintain that posture to maintain peace.”

Trump has hammered NATO during his second term, questioning its value, threatening to leave the alliance and pulling U.S. troops from Germany over frustrations with the lack of European allies’ support for the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. It’s part of the administration’s broad argument that European nations are not investing enough in defense and have overly relied on U.S. military assistance. 

While the House and Senate under Republicans have generally deferred to Trump in his second term, the recent efforts are an example of Armed Services Republicans seeking to reassert some influence on the U.S. commitment to NATO.

“It was not a controversial issue,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “It’s very well........

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