A key House member expressed confidence Sept. 26 that Congress will finish its work on the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill despite Capitol Hill gridlock on many issues.

The optimism from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC’s) strategic forces panel, came eight days after the Senate approved its version of the bill Sept. 18 (Defense Daily, Sept. 19). The legislation now heads to a conference with the House, which passed its bill in July.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.). (Photo courtesy of congressman's office)
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel. (Photo courtesy of congressman’s office)

“I do think that we’re going to get a good conference report,” Rogers said at an Air Force Association breakfast. “When we don’t get anything else done, we still find a way to get our [defense authorization bill] passed.”

Rogers also said he expects the House will vote on whether to prevent the return of across-the-budget cuts required by the Budget Control Act of 2011. Without such a vote, defense spending will be tens of billions of dollars less than what the Trump administration requested and lawmakers have proposed.

“We were assured earlier this year that we would get a vote, an up-or-down vote, on eliminating the caps on defense sequester later this year, and I believe that’s going to happen,” Rogers said. “I hope it’s going to be successful. There is nothing that is more concerning to the HASC members than those caps and what it has done to us.”

Rogers showed no signs of backing down from his proposal to create a space corps in the Air Force Department, despite opposition to the provision from leaders of the Air Force and Department of Defense and from some senators. He said that forming a space corps would provide an opportunity to replace today’s “cumbersome and bureaucratic” space acquisition process with one that is streamlined and better able to keep up with rapid technological change.

“This is not the time for a Hail Mary by the Air Force or DoD to try to stop this endeavor,” the University of Alabama football fan said. “The DoD and the Air Force need to recognize the challenges they face in developing, acquiring and fielding space systems. They need to embrace change.”