Taiwan Finance Committee HIMARS Hearings Tomorrow (May 25); 7 Days to May 31 Deadline; Congress Presses Trump to Restore Arms Sale

With 7 days remaining before the May 31 HIMARS payment deadline — after which the Foreign Military Sale procurement case would be automatically canceled under US law and require an 18-month restart — Taiwan's Legislative Yuan Finance Committee is preparing for scheduled hearings on Monday May 25, 2026, with a floor vote on the NT$295 billion special procurement budget expected Wednesday-Thursday May 27-28. The NT$295B budget, approved by the Cabinet on May 20, covers HIMARS, M109A7 howitzers, anti-armor drone missile systems, Javelin ATGMs, and TOW 2B missiles — the first tranche under the NT$780 billion special defense authorization bill passed by the Legislative Yuan on May 8. Taiwan's Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo has confirmed that the government will invoke Article 84 of the Budget Act as an emergency fallback if the Legislature fails to approve the budget before May 31, authorizing executive payment without standard legislative appropriations procedures. On the US side, Republican and bipartisan Congressional pressure intensified on May 23-24 against the confirmed $14 billion Taiwan arms sale pause. Senate Armed Services Committee members and House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans issued statements calling the pause a dangerous signal to Beijing. The PORCUPINE Act (passed 45-0 in House Foreign Affairs Committee the previous week) would require advance congressional notification before any US administration pauses approved arms deliveries to Taiwan. ABC News reported that Taiwan's government continues to state it has not been officially informed of the pause, maintaining an 'optimistic' posture on eventual arms approval. The simultaneous pressure triangle — $14B package frozen, FMS pause for Iran, Colby Beijing visit blocked — creates the most complex arms ambiguity Taiwan has faced in the post-Taiwan Relations Act era.