Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker is pushing to boost national security spending through normal budgetary channels heading into the next fiscal year, warning that defense priorities are “far from paid for” under the House-passed reconciliation text. The Mississippi Republican called the bill “a start” but rejected the notion that the administration’s proposed $1 trillion fiscal 2026 defense budget, a plan that hinges the bulk of its Defense Department spending increase on the passage of the reconciliation package, would be sufficient to enhance U.S. military capabilities. “There are some members of the administration who thought we would be delighted with the $1 trillion. That's not the way we viewed it,” he told reporters during a June 4 Defense Writers Group event. “We need a steady increase in terms of the baseline year after year after year to get where we need to get, and we need to get [military spending] to 5 percent of gross domestic product.” Getting to Congress: Wicker developed an early affinity for Congress in 1967, working as a Senate page assigned to the GOP desk. He has credited the experience with cementing his commitment to the Republican Party. In college, he was elected student body president and served as a delegate at the 1972 Republican National Convention, where he met a young Mississippian making his first bid for Congress — future Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. That connection proved pivotal to Wicker’s own political future. After law school and four years as a judge advocate general with the Air Force, Wicker took a job in Lott’s Washington office. He spent several years as a congressional staffer before returning home to become a public defender. He was elected to the Mississippi Senate in 1987 and served there until the 1994 Republican wave brought him to Congress. During his seventh House term, Wicker was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Haley Barbour to replace Lott, who resigned in late 2007 to become a lobbyist. Wicker won a special election in 2008 for the remainder of Lott's term and won his first full Senate term in 2012. His State: Culturally and geographically, Mississippi lies at the heart of the Deep South. Its rich local history includes Delta blues alongside a dark legacy of segregation and murder, including the 1955 killing of Black teenager Emmett Till. Despite a relatively small coastline, the state is one of the top producers of seafood, netting species such as blue crabs, Gulf shrimp and more than 200 million pounds of menhaden — an important fish for processing into animal feed, fish oil and other products — in 2023 alone. Mississippi ranks toward the bottom of most health metrics, with among the highest rates of heart disease and diabetes in the U.S. and the lowest estimated life expectancy of any state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s official poverty rate of 18 percent is second only to Louisiana. Voters are largely conservative: President Donald Trump won more than 60 percent of the vote in 2024. What’s New: In May, Wicker teamed up with New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand to unveil legislation that would allow residents of the island of Vieques, part of Puerto Rico, to receive compensation for the long-term health effects of the military’s past use of the island as a U.S. Navy training ground. Nearly six decades of exercises, ending in 2003, left much of the island contaminated with hazardous substances such as Agent Orange and depleted uranium. Similar bills have been introduced since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit referred the matter to Congress in 2012, ruling that sovereign immunity prevented Vieques residents from taking direct legal action themselves. Point of Interest: Wicker served in the state Legislature alongside another young lawyer, John Grisham, who is now a best-selling author. He remembers Grisham selling his first novel, "A Time to Kill," out of the trunk of his car. Briana Reilly contributed to this report. This report was corrected to accurately identify the federal appeals court that referred the Vieques matter to Congress.
