The defense sector immersed itself in the campaigns of members of the US Congress

According to the source, more than five million and 800 thousand dollars have been allocated to the members of the armed forces committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate, who are in charge of preparing the annual defense budget, and their number is 84 members.

The analysis indicated that individuals and political committees that raise or spend more than $1,000 to influence the outcome of a federal election (PAC) affiliated with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics each made generous contributions. associations and parties during the 2022 electoral cycle.

These large contractors, from 2016 to 2021, have raised more than $765 billion from the federal government, including more than $704 billion from the Department of Defense.

Twenty-five members of the Senate Armed Services Committee raised $1,200,000 out of the five million and $200,000 that all senators received from the defense sector during the 2022 elections, when only six members of that body ran in the midterm elections last year. .

Half a dozen lawmakers reported receiving a total of just over $423,000 during the election cycle.

Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, took home $198,961 of that total; More than the money granted to any other member of his Defense Sector Committee during the previous calendar.

Kelly championed the National Defense Authorization Act and raised $25 billion in 2021 in partial funding to “develop new technologies to maintain our competitive advantage,” he told Politico.

The outlet also took up the case of Governor Mike Rogers, who introduced the amendment to increase the bill’s top line in 2021, and led GOP efforts to adopt a Democratic amendment to historically add $37 billion to the defense budget. dollars in 2022.

He, OpenSecrets determined, has received more money from the defense sector than any other member of Congress over the past election cycle.

Additionally, a third of the $13.7 million donated to House members during the midterm elections went to members of the Armed Services Committee.

The 58 members of that body reported receiving an average of $79,588, three times the average of $26,213 reported by other representatives over the same period.

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