By Jen DiMascio
Lawmakers have come to an agreement on a package to fund the Defense Department in fiscal year 2008 that includes billions for force protection equipment including $11 billion for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee said yesterday.
The conference on the defense appropriations bill will be combined with labor, health and human services and the veterans affairs and military construction spending bills.
At this point, the defense bill is “locked,” Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) said.
Among the items agreed to by the House and the Senate are a $200 million cut to from the Army’s flagship modernization program, the Future Combat System, $588 million for the Virginia-class submarine and $980 million for National Guard equipment, Murtha said.
The bill took the House appropriations position on funding the Littoral Combat Ship–providing $339 million to buy a single LCS along with materials bought in prior years.
“This allows the Navy to have sufficient funding/materials to purchase a ship at the proposed fiscal year 2008 LCS cost cap value of $460 million,” according to the House report on the bill.
Murtha added that the bill also provides advance funding for an LPD-17 ship and advance funding for three additional TAK-E cargo ships instead of full funding.
The chairman of the house panel said it would be impossible to realize the Navy’s plan for a 313-ship Navy without building at least 10 ships per year.
The House had added more than $1 billion to purchase an additional Stryker brigade. That funding was not included in the bill, but the House and the Senate agreed to fund replacement of Stryker vehicles in the supplemental when it is considered, Murtha said.
Dollars for 14 C-17 aircraft as well as for additional C-130 aircraft are likely to be included in the supplemental as well, he said.
There was no funding for the war in the bill “until 15 minutes ago,” Murtha said, when leadership agreed to provide $3 billion for body armor, $11 billion for MRAP vehicles and $9 billion for assorted force protection equipment.
Murtha said he would have liked to have seen a bridge fund.
At this point, the bill, which is traveling in a package with the other two appropriations bills, is in line for a presidential veto.
From there, lawmakers are likely to come back with a continuing resolution that includes the defense bill and a reference to last year’s $70 billion account for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That money could carry the Pentagon through the spring, he said.