By Emelie Rutherford
President Bush signed the fiscal year 2009 defense authorization bill into law on Tuesday, thus leaving the Defense Department (DoD) with both an authorization and appropriations act for the entire fiscal year, which will end with Bush’s successor in office.
Bush signed the authorization measure 13 days after the fiscal year began Oct. 1. He approved the FY ’09 appropriations bill–within a continuing resolution temporaraily extending most government spending for part of the fiscal year–on Sept. 30. Part of the delay with the authorization bill was due to technical fixes lawmakers had to make to the document after its final passage on Sept. 27.
The authorization act approves more than $600 billion in spending for DoD, military operations in Iraq and Afghanistanm, and national-security programs of the Department of Energy (DoE). The appropriations measure directs $487.7 billion for defense spending, not including war costs and DoE spending, which is below the $491.7 billion the White House requested.
The FY ’09 appropriations and authorization acts, together, call for continuing DDG-1000 destroyer production while potentially reviving the DDG-51 program, extending the F-22 jet fighter line with the blessing of the next president, and cutting the White House’s funding request for European and longer-term missile defense (Defense Daily, Sept. 25).