By Jen DiMascio
The final version of the spending bill expected to be passed yesterday by the House of Representatives included $70 billion in funding for the war–about $6 billion of which was set aside for defense procurement.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said yesterday the bill will cover war spending until about April. That follow-on spending bill is likely to originate in the House, where representatives have said they don’t know when the rest of the president’s $189 billion request will begin to move forward or in what form.
Aside from providing an additional $40 billion in funding for the war and allowing the Defense Department to use money for both Iraq as well as Afghanistan, the amendment approved by the Senate Dec. 18 made a number of changes relevant to the defense industry.
As a whole, it provided the Pentagon with an additional $4 billion to spend on major platforms.
About $944 million of that addition was provided to buy Army helicopters. That also includes $483 million to buy 27 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters made by Sikorsky [UTX] and $334 million to buy 11 CH-47 Chinooks made by Boeing [BA]. The Army will receive funding to buy another three Boeing AH-64 Apache aircraft.
The fortunes of companies that make large Army combat vehicles were mixed.
BAE SYSTEMS came out the big winner. The original House version of war funding provided $400 million for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle program, but the Senate increased that figure to $700 million.
In stark contrast, General Dynamics [GD] vehicle programs lost significant funding as the bill was modified on Capitol Hill.
The House version of the bill provided $261 million for Stryker vehicles and $485 million for the Abrams Upgrade Program. Both items took a hit in the Senate version–Stryker funding fell to $41 million. The Senate broke Abrams funding into two lines but taken as a whole cut about $61 million.
A congressional aide explained the decrease in Stryker funding saying it was consistent with the Army’s critical requirement.
Truck funding went untouched by the House version of the bill, but the Senate amendment filled in–adding $455 million for Humvees and $140 million for Humvee recapitalization. The Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles made by Oshkosh Truck [OSK] received $427 million; BAE’s Family of Medium Tactical vehicles was granted $146 million.
The final version still includes more than $4 billion to fund the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization.