Joe Gould
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
All Stories By Joe
Republican budget plan will ‘undermine’ US security, warns Biden admin
The Biden administration is portraying plans from Republicans to gut the federal budget as jeopardizing national security.
DoD backs McCain-Reed proposal to close military bases
The Pentagon supports a proposal to authorize a base closure round in 2019 from Sens. John McCain and Jack Reed, according to the top Pentagon official in charge of military installations.
Top Pentagon posts 74 percent vacant as Congress returns
Pentagon nominees will be waiting for Senate confirmation when the upper chamber returns in September, but the Trump administration has dozens of top jobs there to fill.
McCain offers Afghanistan strategy amid Trump’s indecision
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain has announced his own strategy for the war in Afghanistan, he says, because the Trump administration has fallen behind.
McCain warns Trump to watch his words after North Korea ‘fire and fury’
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has to watch his words after the president threatened North Korea in a potential nuclear standoff.
Fact-checking Trump's tweet on the US nuclear arsenal
Amid nuclear tensions with North Korea, the president boasted America's nuclear arsenal is “far stronger and more powerful than ever before.” But is it?
Thorny fiscal deadlines await Congress’ return
The Trump administration and Congress face a trio of high-priority budget items when lawmakers return from recess in September. And if they stumble, it could lead to a partial government shutdown.
US House approves security spending bill with $1.6B for Trump border wall
The House on Thursday passed a four-bill, $789.6 billion federal spending package that sets up a showdown in the Senate over its inclusion of border wall funding and because it tops defense budget caps by $63.5 billion.
Congress' defense budgeting headed toward 'colossal crackup'
The U.S. House on Wednesday took up a defense appropriations bill that proposes tens of billion of dollars in new spending for the Pentagon. The problem is that it breaks budget caps set in law.
McCain returns, but DoD’s policy bill faces health care road block
After a dramatic return to the Senate to cast a vote on the GOP’s Obamacare overhaul Tuesday, Sen. John McCain said he hoped to soon shepherd through the chamber's 2018 defense policy bill. But there are more questions than answers about when and how.
