WASHINGTON — Utah Sen. Mike Lee is pushing to require NATO allies to regularly report how much of their gross domestic product they are contributing toward military spending as President Donald Trump demands that foreign countries pay their fair share.
Lee introduced a pair of resolutions on Tuesday as Trump gathered with other world leaders at the NATO summit in the Netherlands. At the summit, NATO members are discussing whether to require countries to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense. The legislation comes as some countries have failed to meet past spending requirements, prompting complaints from Trump that foreign allies are taking advantage of the United States.
“America has shouldered the burden of NATO freeloaders for decades,” Lee said in a statement. “Year after year, our so-called allies shirk their commitments while we pay for the conflicts raging in their backyards. By imposing annual reporting requirements, my legislation will identify delinquent allies — promoting accountability and putting them on notice to pay their fair share.”
The first resolution, titled the NATO Burden Sharing Report Act, would require member countries to prepare annual reports detailing defense spending as both a monetary figure and a percentage of the country’s total GDP.
Reports must also include each country’s hard power contributions for Ukraine — meaning funds going toward military force, economic sanctions or other coercive acts — as well as soft power contributions, which typically refer to more symbolic actions meant to express support for a nation.
Countries would be required to report the size and structure of their armed forces; areas in which the country would rely on allies militarily; capacity to produce and maintain military equipment and services; and any changes in defense spending over the previous year, as well as anticipated spending for the upcoming year.
Lee introduced a second resolution named the Allied Burden Sharing Report Act, which would implement similar reporting requirements but would instead apply to the Department of Defense.
The legislation would require the DOD to submit an annual report on the defense spending of all 59 U.S. allies, similarly including the monetary figure and percentage of GDP.
The report would also detail the military activities of each ally that could require support from the U.S. Armed Forces; any limitations placed on those activities; and any actions taken by the U.S. or other countries to minimize those limitations.
The pair of resolutions comes after NATO allies previously committed to spending 2% of their annual GDP on defense measures in 2014, later changing that requirement in 2023 to set that number as a minimum for allies.
A majority of NATO allies spend at least 2% of their GDP on military, but the list noticeably narrows when it comes to 2.5% and higher.
Only six countries, including the United States, spend more than 2.5% of their GDP on defense, according to an analysis by Politico. Poland leads the pack at 4.12%, followed by Estonia at 3.43% and the U.S. in third place at 3.38%.
As a result, the legislation would seek to remove “any doubt as to who the delinquent allies are and equipping Congress with the information it needs to perform necessary oversight,” according to a press release sent by Lee.
Lawmakers, including Lee himself, have previously introduced legislation seeking to enforce similar burden-sharing reports, although that legislation has never been passed by Congress. It’s not yet clear if or when it may get a vote in the Senate.