The Senate voted 53-47 Tuesday to clear a potential $510 million deal for the U.S. to sell precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, Defense News reported Tuesday.

The deal is part of a $110 billion weapon sales package that President Donald Trump signed with Saudi King Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud in May.

Senators also voted against a resolution that seeks to block the $510 million transaction a day after Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York) supported the proposed measure.

Schumer opposed the munitions sale on the grounds that Saudi Arabia continues to aid terrorism through its link to Wahhabism, which he said is “responsible for much of the radicalization of Muslim youth in the Middle East in North Africa.”

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Al Franken (D-Minnesota) sponsored the resolution, which sought to show disapproval of Saudi Arabia’s role in the civil war in Yemen.

Kenneth Rapuano, a senior vice president at nonprofit research institute ANSER, has been confirmed as assistant secretary for homeland defense and global security at the Pentagon, Washington Examiner reported Monday.

The Senate voted 95-1 to approve Rapuano’s nomination, which makes him the sixth confirmed Defense Department appointee under President Donald Trump’s administration, the report stated.

Rapuano previously worked as director of advanced systems and policy at Mitre as well as president of homeland security at ICx Technologies.

He has also served as deputy homeland security adviser under George W. Bush’s administration and deputy undersecretary for counterterrorism at the Energy Department.

Rapuano is a member of the Defense Science Board’s task force on the role of DoD in homeland defense and is a previous member of the Department of Homeland Security‘s advisory committees.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the Defense Department needs a continued base budget increase of at least 3 percent above inflation to maintain the U.S. military’s competitive advantage, DoD News reported Monday.

Dunford told members of the House Armed Services Committee that the fiscal year 2018 budget request is essential but would not restore readiness or mitigate the decrease in DoD’s competitive advantage against potential adversaries.

“Since 9/11, an extraordinarily high operational tempo has accelerated the wear and tear of our weapons and equipment,” said Dunford.

“Meanwhile, budget instability and the Budget Control Act has forced the department to operate with far fewer resources than required for the strategy of record,” he added.

Dunford noted that budget challenges required DoD to prioritize near-term readiness and delay efforts to replace aging equipment and develop new technologies, the report stated.

The chairman added DoD lacks the capacity to meet current operational needs while maintaining full-spectrum readiness.

The Government Accountability Office has urged the secretary of defense to instruct the U.S. Army to select a point of contact for information related to armored commercial passenger-carrying vehicles.

The GAO said in a report published Friday that DoD and its components including the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and the Defense Intelligence Agency have multiple guidelines on ACPV acquisition similar to the State Department‘s guidance material.

DoD credited the Federal Acquisition Regulation as its basis for guidelines on procurement activities which cover procurement methods, inspection, oversight and warranty elements.

The government watchdog agency noted that the DoD components have generally complied with the ACPV guidance and policies as well as with minimum armoring standards.

GAO said that the Army has opportunities to further develop its in-progress inspection processes which currently rely on vendors’ quality control activities.

The report added that most of the DoD components have designated central office and mechanisms tasked to report ACPV information and other ACPV-related matters such as procurement and inspection methods.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has asked Congress to put an end to sequestration and pass the proposed defense budget for fiscal year 2018 to prevent another continuing resolution that he said hampers military readiness, modernization and innovation, DoD News reported Monday.

The Trump administration proposed to allocate a topline defense budget of $639.1 billion that includes $64.6 billion in funds for overseas contingency operations and $574.5 billion in base budget for the Defense Department.

Mattis, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2017, told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Monday that Congress should consider several concurrent external factors that affect budget deliberations.

These factors include the involvement of the U.S. military in war, technological changes, adversaries that contest U.S. capabilities in various military domains and challenges posed by Russia, China, North Korea and terrorist groups to the U.S. government.

He said the FY 2018 budget request seeks to show five defense priorities and these include the need to build up readiness, support for OCO and ramp up military capabilities.