National Security News

The Daily Signal provides reports on national and homeland security issues, including military readiness, intelligence operations, border protection, and global conflicts. Featuring news, analysis, and commentary, this section explores how security policy decisions affect America’s national defense and freedom.
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  • opinion

    US Shouldn’t Squander Financial Leverage at United Nations
    In an article Monday in Foreign Policy magazine, former U.N. Ambassadors Madeleine Albright, John Negroponte, and Thomas Pickering call for the U.S. to pay its arrears to the United Nations to “regain credibility and moral authority.” But the article is misleading in places and wrong in its assumptions. Misleadingly, the trio write, “When the Trump…
    Brett Schaefer
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  • opinion

    On Electoral Redistricting Panels, HR 1 Would Require Racial, Gender Discrimination
    HR 1, the so-called For the People Act, is a dangerous and radical bill. It threatens the security, fairness, and integrity of our elections and restricts the First Amendment rights of Americans to freely engage in political speech and activity.  It would force state legislatures to hand over the redistricting process to unaccountable bureaucrats and…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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  • news

    Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Scraps Advisory Council During Border Crisis
    In the midst of the crisis at the southern border, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas dismantled a longstanding, nonpartisan advisory body, announcing “a new model” Friday in a letter terminating most of its members. Mayorkas’ letter told 32 members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council that he is removing them, though they were appointed by…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    America’s National Defense Also Women’s Issue, Sen. Joni Ernst Says
    The Biden administration’s reported decision to hold America’s defense budget flat for the next fiscal year is concerning, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, says.  Ernst served in the U.S. military for more than 23 years before becoming a senator. Today, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Ernst is committed to promoting policies that…
    Virginia Allen | Lauren Evans
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  • opinion

    Nuclear Modernization Is Our Top Defense Priority, and America Can Afford It
    At a recent Heritage Foundation event, Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., brought some needed simplicity to the debate over the affordability of nuclear modernization. After years of deferring nuclear modernization, the United States is now forced to take on multiple modernization projects all at once. This includes modernizing the three legs of the nuclear triad—land-, air-,…
    Patty-Jane Geller
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  • news

    GOP Senate Leaders Criticize Biden Team for Prioritizing Social Justice Over Working Americans
    Three top Senate Republicans have voiced concern to the Biden administration's Labor Department that it is prioritizing social justice above the interests of American workers. Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mike Crapo of Idaho, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania—the respective ranking members of the Senate's Labor, Finance and Banking committees—wrote a letter Thursday responding to…
    Thomas Catenacci
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  • opinion

    The Social Cost of Carbon and Climate Sensitivity Is Model Manipulation at Its Finest
    The “social cost of carbon” is a calculation that the Biden administration is looking to use to justify stringent regulation of carbon dioxide emissions. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt—joined by Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah—have now filed a lawsuit, arguing that the use of this metric in…
    Patrick J. Michaels | Kevin Dayaratna
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  • opinion

    Why Is Our Military Choosing New Enemies?
    The U.S. military has turned its wrath inward on Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin expressed his “revulsion” after Carlson questioned the role of women in combat. Keeping women mostly out of combat had been the U.S. military’s centuries-long orthodoxy until just a few years ago. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby even…
    Victor Davis Hanson
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  • opinion

    Don’t Let the Department of Defense Become the Department of Distraction
    One of the fundamental roles of a leader is organizing people—knowing how to direct people’s efforts and where to allocate resources. Failing to establish clear priorities leads to wasted effort or, worse, mission failure. A famous maxim warns leaders: “If everything is important, nothing is.” No one should envy the job of Lloyd Austin, President…
    Thomas Spoehr
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  • opinion

    Fact-Checking DHS Chief’s Dishonest Statement on Border Crisis
    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas released a factually challenged and misleading statement Tuesday about the crisis on the border. As specialists in immigration policy at The Heritage Foundation, we’re going to correct the record here on eight of Mayorkas’ erroneous claims in a comprehensive response. (The last name after each section identifies which of us…
    Chad Wolf | Mark Morgan | Lora Ries
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  • opinion

    China Hikes Defense Budget Again as US Weighs Flatlining Pentagon Spending
    Trying to preserve a veneer of democratic legitimacy, the Chinese government goes through the political theater of a meeting of its rubber-stamp Congress every March. As part of the process, Beijing releases the figure that will be spent on its military for the year. The Chinese fiscal year runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31,…
    Frederico Bartels
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  • news

    Pentagon Prepared to Extend National Guard’s Presence at Capitol
    The Pentagon is prepared to extend the National Guard’s presence at the U.S. Capitol for an additional two months, defense officials said Tuesday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to give final approval, though Pentagon officials told The Associated Press that final details were still being discussed. Capitol Police requested last week that the National Guard continue to provide…
    Andrew Trunsky
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  • opinion

    Let’s Be Clear: ‘For the People Act’ Would Benefit Leftist Politicians, Not the People
    Almost a year after its initial passage, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has once again passed HR 1, the For the People Act. However, there’s one major difference this year—this misleadingly named bill is no longer dead on arrival in a Republican Senate or White House. Now that leftists hold the reins of power, Democrat…
    Rep. Brian Babin
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  • opinion

    Why ‘Social Cost of Carbon’ Is Most Useless Number You’ve Never Heard Of
    On his very first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order resurrecting the Obama-era social cost of carbon, intended to quantify the economic impact of climate change.  The administration on Feb. 26 issued an interim estimate reporting that these damages are approximately $51 per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Dubbed by…
    Kevin Dayaratna
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  • opinion

    Rare Earth Elements Aren’t That Rare, but They’re Vital to National Security
    For one-third of the price of one F-35 Lightning II, the Pentagon made a key investment to ensure its supply of rare earth elements. The Department of Defense earlier this month announced that Lynas USA LLC was awarded a $30.4 million technology investment agreement under Title III of the Defense Production Act. With that award,…
    Maiya Clark | Ryan Williams
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  • opinion

    Privatizing Social Security Would Help Families Become Better Off
    A recent Reuters headline read, “Yellen, Rice tout economics as key to fixing American inequality.” According to Susan Rice, President Joe Biden’s new domestic policy adviser, “The evidence is clear, investing in equity is good for economic growth.” Our new Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, says, “I believe economic policy can be a potent tool to…
    Star Parker
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  • opinion

    Call Transportation Bailouts What They Are: More Welfare for Labor Unions
    Congress is moving full steam ahead on ramming through a bloated, wasteful, and debt-exploding $1.9 trillion legislative package. Although it’s supposedly justified by the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the spending is designed to appease progressive ideological causes and politically connected interest groups. A prime example is the $57.5 billion currently earmarked for various parts of…
    David Ditch
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  • opinion

    Socialism Delivers Misery
    People hate America’s big disparities in wealth. It’s a reason why, among young people, socialism is as popular as capitalism. The Democratic Socialists of America want a country based on “freedom, equality, and solidarity.” That sure sounds good. But does socialism bring that? My new video debunks several myths about socialism. One reason for socialism’s…
    John Stossel
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  • news

    4 Things to Know About Biden’s Pick for Homeland Security Secretary
    The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Alejandro Mayorkas, who has kept a high, occasionally controversial political profile in California and Washington since the 1990s, is the son of Cuban immigrants. Mayorkas, 61, is an alumnus of Beverly Hills High School who graduated…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Biden Orders End to Private Prisons in Package to Achieve ‘Racial Equity’
    Denouncing what he called “systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, far too long,” President Joe Biden signed executive actions Tuesday aimed at “racial equity,” including a measure to end the use of private prisons to hold federal inmates.  “We are in a battle for the soul of this nation and the simple…
    Fred Lucas
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