WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A group of forty U.S. Republican senators and representatives from the House of Representatives Armed Services Committees urged Joe Biden to propose a 5% inflation-adjusted increase in defense spending for his fiscal 2023 U.S. federal budget.

Biden will likely announce his budget next Wednesday.

The lawmakers sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday, stating that they strongly encouraged them to oppose the previous year’s approach to reducing defense spending at the rate of inflation as you prepare your budget for fiscal 2023.

Biden presented a budget in his first year of office that kept the Department of Defense spending flat. He and other Democrats were trying to control the Department of Defense budget which now exceeds $750 billion.

The lawmakers wrote that “unprecedented Chinese military reformization has left us behind” in key regions of the Western Pacific. They also stated in the letter, “Every day the Chinese Communist Party more clearly demonstrates to us that their interests are diametrically opposite ours.”

According to them, “Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine already leaves us and our NATO allies more secure. His appetite for instability and erratic behaviour is likely grow.”

Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican top-ranked on the House Armed Services Committee, was the lead signator of the letter, as well as Senator Jim Inhofe (the Republican top-ranked on the Senate Armed Services Committee).