China Defense Spending Transparency Act

II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1791 To require the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency to conduct a comparative study on the defense budgets of the People’s Republic of China and the United States, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 1, 2023 Mr. ROMNEY (for himself, Mr. MANCHIN, Mr. SULLIVAN, and Mr. KING) in- troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Se- lect Committee on Intelligence A BILL To require the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency to conduct a comparative study on the defense budgets of the People’s Republic of China and the United States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘China Defense Spend- 4 ing Transparency Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:59 Jun 17, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1791.IS S1791 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1791 IS SEC. 2. COMPARATIVE STUDY ON DEFENSE BUDGET 1 TRANSPARENCY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC 2 OF CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES. 3 (a) STUDY REQUIRED.— 4 (1) DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY STUDY.— 5 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact- 6 ment of this Act, the Director of the Defense Intel- 7 ligence Agency shall complete and submit to the ap- 8 propriate committees of Congress a public compara- 9 tive study on the defense budgets of the People’s Re- 10 public of China and the United States. 11 (2) METHODOLOGY.—The study required by 12 paragraph (1) shall employ a robust methodology 13 that— 14 (A) does not depend on the official pro- 15 nouncements of the Government of the People’s 16 Republic of China or the Chinese Communist 17 Party; 18 (B) takes into account the military-civil fu- 19 sion present in the People’s Republic of China; 20 and 21 (C) employs the building block method of 22 analysis or a similar method of analysis. 23 (3) GOAL.—The goal of the study required by 24 paragraph (1) shall be to provide the people of the 25 United States with an accurate comparison of the 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:59 Jun 17, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1791.IS S1791 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1791 IS defense spending of the People’s Republic of China 1 and the United States. 2 (4) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The Director shall 3 make the study required by paragraph (1) available 4 to the public on the internet website of the Defense 5 Intelligence Agency. 6 (b) ELEMENTS.—The study required by this section 7 shall do the following: 8 (1) Determine the amounts invested by each 9 subject country across functional categories for 10 spending, including— 11 (A) defense-related research and develop- 12 ment; 13 (B) weapons procurement from domestic 14 and foreign sources; 15 (C) operations and maintenance; 16 (D) pay and benefits; and 17 (E) military pensions. 18 (2) Consider the effects of purchasing power 19 parity and market exchange rates, particularly on 20 nontraded goods. 21 (3) Estimate the magnitude of omitted spend- 22 ing from official defense budget information and ac- 23 count for such spending in the comparison. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:59 Jun 17, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1791.IS S1791 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1791 IS (4) Exclude spending related to veterans’ bene- 1 fits, other than military pensions provided to vet- 2 erans. 3 (c) CONSIDERATIONS.—The study required by this 4 section may take into consideration the following: 5 (1) The effects of State-owned enterprises on 6 the defense expenditures of the People’s Republic of 7 China. 8 (2) The role of differing acquisition policies and 9 structures with respect to the defense expenditures 10 of each subject country. 11 (3) Any other matter relevant to evaluating the 12 resources dedicated to the defense spending or the 13 various military-related outlays of the People’s Re- 14 public of China. 15 (d) FORM.—The study required by this section shall 16 be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a clas- 17 sified annex. 18 (e) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS DE- 19 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate commit- 20 tees of Congress’’ means— 21 (1) the Committee on Appropriations, the Com- 22 mittee on Armed Services, the Committee on For- 23 eign Relations, and the Select Committee on Intel- 24 ligence of the Senate; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:59 Jun 17, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1791.IS S1791 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1791 IS (2) the Committee on Appropriations, the Com- 1 mittee on Armed Services, the Committee on For- 2 eign Affairs, and the Permanent Select Committee 3 on Intelligence of the House of Representatives. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:59 Jun 17, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1791.IS S1791 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS