Eighty House Republicans vote to cut $482 million from NATO and put it into US military bases

“The U.S. keeps footing the bill for NATO while some of these countries refuse to fully back America when it actually matters,” Stuebe wrote in a post on X. “Taxpayers should not be subsidizing ‘allies’ who expect our protection but won’t show up for us.”

Steube’s amendment to include in the military appropriations bill was rejected by a 333-to-80 vote of the entire House.

The resounding opposition figure, however, obscures the GOP split on the issue. Overall, 127 Republicans joined with 205 Democrats and Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), an independent who caucuses with the GOP, to defeat the measure.

“We sit here and defend them all, and then we get into a bind, and they just run for cover,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who voted for the measure. “Yet, we’ve got all our military out there, all in their countries, protecting them. I’m kind of sick of it. We need to start looking after the good old US of A.”

The amendment came amid sharp criticism of NATO countries by President Donald Trump for refusing to help with the Iran war. The commander in chief, in particular, has griped that NATO countries have refused America the use of bases in the Middle East from which to launch strikes on Iran.

Trump has also lambasted members of the alliance for shrugging off requests to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, despite much of the oil that Europe relies on navigating through the waterway.

“When you have NATO partners denying you the use of those bases,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News this week. “Then what’s the purpose of the alliance? It starts becoming a ‘they’re allies when they want to be’ kind of thing.”