U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Representative Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, have voiced strong opposition to the Pentagon’s recent decision to discontinue the rotational U.S. brigade in Romania. The two lawmakers issued a joint statement expressing concern that this move appears uncoordinated and inconsistent with President Trump’s stated strategy regarding U.S. military presence in Europe.
“We strongly oppose the decision not to maintain the rotational U.S. brigade in Romania and the Pentagon’s process for its ongoing force posture review that may result in further drawdowns of U.S. forces from Eastern Europe.
On March 19, we stated that we will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the Joint Staff, and collaboration with Congress.
Unfortunately, this appears to be exactly what is being attempted. Two weeks ago, President Trump stated that the United States would not be withdrawing U.S. forces in Europe, but instead ‘may move some around a little bit.’ The President is right that U.S. force posture in Europe needs to be updated as NATO shoulders additional burdens and the character of warfare changes. But that update must be coordinated widely both within the U.S. government and with NATO.
Romania has been a strong ally, making major investments to host U.S. forces and modernize the infrastructure that supports them. Romania has spent over 2% of GDP on its military for many years and has pledged to achieve 5% of GDP. These investments, alongside their contributions to NATO’s eastern defenses and Black Sea security, underscore Romania’s central role in the Alliance’s security. Notably, since 2016, Romania has hosted a U.S. Aegis Ashore missile defense detachment, accepting substantial political, military, and economic risk to field systems designed primarily for the defense of NATO allies rather than its own territory.
Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, our European allies have agreed to shoulder historic levels of the burden of collective defense. However, European rearmament will take time. Pulling back U.S. forces from NATO’s Eastern flank prematurely, and just weeks after Russian drones violated Romanian airspace, undermines deterrence and risks inviting further Russian aggression.
This decision also sends the wrong signal to Russia at the very moment President Trump is applying pressure to force Vladimir Putin to come to the table to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine. The President has it exactly right: now is the time for America to demonstrate our resolve against Russian aggression. Unfortunately, the Pentagon’s decision appears uncoordinated and directly at odds with the President’s strategy.
It is concerning that Congress was not consulted in advance of this decision, particularly given the clear, bipartisan, and bicameral support for a robust U.S. posture in Europe expressed in both the House and Senate versions of the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation also makes clear the Congressional intent that no modifications be made to the U.S. posture in Europe absent a thorough review process.
We are seeking clarification from the Pentagon on how it plans to mitigate the impact of this decision on NATO’s deterrence and defense posture and whether they coordinated with Allies to minimize these consequences. We will also seek assurances that, as the President has previously stated, the two armored brigades in Poland remain in place, and that the United States continues to sustain a persistent rotational presence in Poland, the Baltic states, and Romania.”
The statement highlights concerns about maintaining NATO’s deterrence capability amid recent incidents involving Russian drones entering Romanian airspace and ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
