By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate began debating a three-part, $193 billion supplemental war appropriations bill yesterday.
As of Defense Daily‘s deadline the chamber had not yet voted on the legislation that would cover part of fiscal year 2008 and include “bridge” funding for FY ’09.
The weapons system-rundown in the bill, within the procurement and research and development sections, is similar to that in the funding measure the House shot down last Thursday (Defense Daily, May 20).
The Senate legislation marked up by the Senate Appropriations Committee last Thursday includes $42 billion for FY ’08 procurement–compared to the $41 billion the House eyed– and $1.7 billion for FY ’08 R&D–more than the House’s proposed $1.6 billion.
For the FY ’09 “bridge” funding, the SAC has $4.4 billion in procurement and $387.8 in R&D– the same levels the House eyed.
The Senate–like the House–broke the supplemental spending bill into three sections, on: war funding, war policy, and non-war spending–including an expanded GI Bill.
The war-funding portion of the House’s supplemental bill failed last Thursday when 132 Republican–upset with not being more involved in writing the bill or allowed to amend it–cast protest votes of “present.” The other two sections passed the House.