Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman, the chief of space operations, told international military leaders  at the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference here on Tuesday that space is, undoubtedly, a warfighting domain. Invoking American poet Robert Frost, he said, “We must frame our choices around how to have military advantage, and for better or worse, the path we choose will make all the difference.” 

Saltzman said during his speech that he will retire next month. The White House has tapped Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess to replace him, as first reported by Defense One in April. Schiess is scheduled to appear for a confirmation hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. 

But elsewhere on Capitol Hill, lawmakers say they will not fully comply with the Trump administration’s request to fund important priorities through reconciliation—a partisan-controlled budget maneuver rarely used for defense spending before last year. That could leave the Space Force far short of the money it wants. 

The White House has asked Congress for $1.15 trillion through the normal defense-budget process plus another $350 billion through reconciliation. The latter amount would fund major Space Force programs, such as the Air Moving Target Indicator and the space data network, and the vast majority of funds for the Golden Dome missile defense program.

On Wednesday, Republican House leaders said they would support a reconciliation bill of just $60 billion.

Saltzman didn’t say whether a smaller reconciliation package would harm the service, but said during a roundtable interview on Wednesday that “I stand behind” the service’s budget request and added it was “a dramatic increase in resourcing requests for what I think are vital” space capabilities.

“I think these things are always negotiations between the executive and the legislature. That's the way the system works,” Saltzman said. “I stand behind the requirements and the resources that we requested, and now over to Congress to determine what that appropriation looks like.”

During his speech, Saltzman told the military leaders in the room that they have to be steadfast during political division. 

“In the hyper-political environment we find ourselves, with partisan politics created divisions between a multitude of stakeholders, I remind myself that military institutions in our democracies, particularly military leadership, serves as the ballast in the ship. While it may feel like the ballast slows progress as the ship of state attempts to quickly move towards its goals, the ballast creates stability when the inevitable storms arise,” Saltzman said. “We, as military leaders in our democracies, must remember our roles. Think long-term, offer our military experience to decision makers, and do what we can to provide the stability and be a calming presence."

Saltzman has served as the head of the Space Force since his confirmation in September 2022. Under his tenure, the service’s budget swelled from $26 billion to a this year’s $72 billion request, while its ranks grew to roughly 11,000 guardians. The service has also seen some of its highest public recognition to date for the role its service members have played during operations in Venezuela and Iran this year.

The Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference follows a prickly NATO summit earlier this month, during which President Trump threw barbs at European allies. 

Saltzman, during his final public speech, pushed a message of unity among allies.

“We are stronger as a team of nations than any one of us as an individual,” Saltzman said. “There is far too much evidence over the last 80 years or so to argue otherwise.”

Jay Clayton, who currently serves as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee that former president Joe Biden was “certified” president in 2020 after the election commenced, but would not outright say Biden won when asked multiple times.

“I’m not an election denier,” Clayton contended in the hearing. But the answer was not satisfactory for multiple senators who got into back-and-forths with Clayton over his responses.

“You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America’s intelligence community?” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?”

Election security has become a flashpoint at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the agency has grown involved in Trump’s effort to revisit the 2020 election. Former DNI Tulsi Gabbard appeared at a February FBI search of a Georgia election facility and oversaw a review of Puerto Rico voting machines, while Trump more recently authorized acting DNI Bill Pulte to declassify 2020 election records. 

The activity has fueled concerns that ODNI, which manages America’s intelligence apparatus that is meant to predominantly track and counter overseas threats, is being drawn further into Trump’s election claims. On Thursday night, the president is expected to unveil what the administration says is evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election and vulnerabilities in voting machines.

Throughout his testimony, Clayton asserted the job of ODNI is to focus on foreign intelligence threats and not domestic matters.

Days before his June 11 nomination, Clayton spoke on CNBC and appeared to criticize the nation’s election administration processes. 

“On the [election] integrity side, we are doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it. How come we can have an audit trail in every other aspect of our lives that’s important?” he said at the time.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, questioned why Clayton opined on those matters. 

“For the record, I wish you would share any evidence you have that asserts that there was any problem of voter fraud significant enough to change the results of an election in this country,” King said. 

Asked by King whether there is a voter fraud problem in the nation, Clayton said, “I don’t think we can say definitively whether there is or is not until we have better processes.”

On cybersecurity, he said that the topic was a top-of-mind issue for him, especially on election influence matters. He said he would commit to assessing whether ODNI’s cyber and foreign influence components — which were downsized under Gabbard — should be resourced again.

In his current position, Clayton oversees one of the nation’s most prominent prosecutorial offices. He previously chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, and he spent more than two decades at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, focusing on corporate transactions and capital markets. 

Clayton argued that he worked closely with intelligence and law enforcement on terrorism, espionage, cyber threats and illicit finance cases during that work history. He has no prior experience working inside the intelligence community. Clayton’s office is notably prosecuting deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife on narcoterrorism, drug-trafficking and weapons charges following their capture by U.S. forces in January. 

If confirmed, he would inherit an intelligence office already undergoing significant workforce changes. Pulte, a major Trump ally who led the administration’s controversial mortgage fraud investigations last year, has initiated multiple rounds of personnel cuts and received broad permission from Trump to declassify records, prompting concerns from former officials about the exposure of sensitive intelligence capabilities.

Clayton was also questioned during the hearing about his office issuing subpoenas last Friday seeking grand jury testimony from four New York Times journalists who reported that Trump returned from a NATO summit aboard an older Air Force One after security officials raised concerns about the Qatari-gifted aircraft that was meant to replace it. The Times reported that the newer plane lacked some of the prior aircraft’s advanced security features, including antimissile capabilities. Some subpoenas were delivered to the journalists’ homes.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., criticized the subpoenas as an attack on press freedom and the First Amendment.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., also questioned how quickly they were issued, arguing that Clayton’s explanation was difficult to reconcile with the fact that security concerns about the Qatari-donated plane had been known for months.

Clayton defended his handling of the matter, saying he was “comfortable” with the process. He declined to discuss specific details because the investigation into the disclosure of classified information remains ongoing, but said he consulted other lawyers before issuing the subpoenas and respects the First Amendment and the press’s role.

“I’m not going to get into the details. But what I can tell you is that we followed the procedures,” he said.

Trump nominated Clayton last month after his decision to install Pulte as acting intelligence chief drew resistance from Democrats and some Republicans. Clayton’s first scheduled hearing was abruptly postponed after Trump said the Senate should first approve his chosen replacement at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and demanded action on unrelated election legislation.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the intelligence panel, told reporters after the hearing that he was disappointed in Clayton’s responses and has “a lot to think about.” The senator previously noted that he has known Clayton for many years and believes “he is a capable public servant.”

“I was very disappointed with a number of Mr. Clayton’s answers. It’s not in many ways reflective of the person that I’ve worked with over the years,” Warner said. “I worry that there seems to be this criteria that this administration is putting out, about no one who’s put up for any position can tell the truth about the 2020 election. That’s deeply unsettling.”

SDA is scheduled to launch its next 21 Tranche 1 satellites on Thursday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Their payloads will be part of the data-transport layer of the agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a network of hundreds of low-earth-orbit satellites to be used for space-based military communications and threat detection. After the first two batches of those satellites were sent into orbit this past fall, SDA paused further launches as officials worked through technical problems.

“We did see software and hardware issues on the ones on orbit right now,” Gurpartap Sandhoo, the Space Development Agency’s director, told reporters on Wednesday.  “That's why we kind of delayed and took a pause to make sure we fix at least the known issues. We expect this launch to be a lot smoother than the last one.”

After Thursday’s launch, Sandhoo said, the agency will have roughly half of the transport layer’s satellites on orbit. Satellites for the next layer, known as Tranche 2, are anticipated to start going up in fiscal year 2027. 

Despite the delays, Sandhoo said SDA is “in a better place in terms of schedule.” 

Yet his agency might not survive long as an independent entity. A draft version of the National Defense Authorization Act aims to fold the agency and authorities into the Space Force’s portfolio acquisition executive.

Sandhoo said SDA employees may have “some concerns” with the draft language. But workers are “here for the mission” and to get the architecture done, he said.

Government watchdogs have repeatedly questioned the technology behind the satellite constellation.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office raised concerns about its laser-communications technology, saying that it “hasn't fully demonstrated that it works in space.” The agency pushed back on the report and said it had achieved “baseline objectives” with tests.

In January, GAO reported that SDA’s program “is at risk of being unable to deliver capability as quickly as planned” and said the agency “should be more realistic and transparent on the technology it can deliver.

Sandhoo pushed back on those findings as well, telling reporters that the agency needs to take risks to bring crucial space-based technologies to the troops.

“I would want you to go back and look at the Apollo program. I mean, you did not wait until Apollo 8 landed before you start building Apollo 9, right? You just had to do it,” Sandhoo said.  “That's the kind of mindset we're taking. That's what I think the nation needs right now.”