The Senate passed the Pentagon policy bill yesterday by an 86-13 vote, clearing it for President Barack Obama’s signature as the fate of the actual defense budget legislation remained in question.
The near-final versions of the defense authorization and appropriations bills for fiscal year 2012 contain similar funding for many weapon systems. Those include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with both pieces of legislation calling for cutting one aircraft, and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) effort, a once-disputed program the bills will keep alive.
The all-important budget-setting FY ’12 appropriations bill, though, had not been voted on by either chamber of Congress as of the end of the day yesterday. A temporary Pentagon budget expires tonight at midnight.
House Republican leaders introduced around midnight Wednesday a massive $1 trillion government-funding package that includes a $518 billion defense appropriations bill, which is worth $5 billion more than the FY ’11 version.
Details within the defense measure were finalized last week, behind closed doors. While the $1 trillion omnibus bill is largely supported in Congress, it has been delayed as House Republicans and Senate Democrats fight over separate payroll-tax legislation.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said yesterday he expects the House to pass the omnibus today and send it to the Democrat-led Senate for final approval, which it may not grant.
If it or a similar bill doesn’t clear Congress midnight, lawmakers could pass another continuing resolution (CR) temporary covering the Pentagon and other agencies to avoid a government shutdown. Much of the federal budget has been covered by CRs since FY ’12 began Oct. 1.
As the appropriations machinations took place yesterday, largely in private, the full Senate debated and passed the FY ’12 defense authorization legislation.
The White House backed down Wednesday on its threat to veto the Pentagon authorization bill, after which the House passed the measure via a 283-136 vote. The Obama administration was concerned about military-detainee language in the bill, but relented after House and Senate negotiators modified it (Defense Daily, Dec. 15).
For Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] F-35, the defense bill trims the authorization for Pentagon’s proposal for 32 aircraft to 31, cutting the $9.7 billion request by $384 million. That funding is the same in the appropriations legislation, according to aides. The authorization measure also says contracts for forthcoming lots of F-35s, staring with lot 6, must be fixed-price and require the contractor pay all cost overruns.
For the Medium Air Extended Defense System (MEADS), the policy bill cuts the authorized funding, from $407 million requested to $390 million, and fences 75 percent of FY ’12 funding until the defense secretary reports on plans to either terminate or restructure the program.
The United States had planned to cancel its involvement in three-nation program, spurring debate over high contract termination fees associated with the system developed by MEADS International, which includes Lockheed Martin.
The final authorization bill tweaks requested funding or plans for a number of weapons programs including Littoral Combat Ships, Abrams tanks, Stryker vehicles, F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, UH-1Y/AH-1Z helicopters, the Army’s future Ground Combat Vehicle, and Marine Corps amphibious vehicles.
For the Army-Marine Corps JLTV development effort, the authorization legislation trims the authorization for Pentagon’s $222 million request by $88 million because of delays.
The corresponding defense appropriations bill funds the JLTV, according to aides. The Senate Appropriations Committee tried to cancel the JLTV in September, pointing to delays and rising costs with the program for which three industry teams have built prototypes. Army and Marine Corps officials fought to save the vehicle, though, touting new requirements and cost-savings they agreed to in recent months.
The policy-setting legislation also includes multiple provisions intended to prevent counterfeit electronic parts, which often originate in China, from entering the defense supply chain.
As the Senate prepared to debate the defense authorization bill mid-day yesterday, Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a lengthy floor speech blasting the “military-industrial-congressional complex.” He criticized congressional earmarks, the “revolving door” between the Pentagon and defense industry, and the manner in which the Pentagon buys the largest weapon systems.
He argued the “military-industrial-congressional complex” helps create “programs that are so fundamentally unsound that they are doomed to be poorly executed” and keeps them alive “long after they should have been ended or restructured.”
He cited past and present qualms with a number of programs, including the Air Force tanker, the F-35, the now-canceled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, and V-22, Space-Based Infrared System High efforts.
The authorization bill calls for a $530 billion base defense budget, $23 billion less than the administration’s initial combined $553 billion request for the Pentagon and military construction, which it submitted to Congress in February. The authorization measure also reduces the White House’s war-funding request from $117.8 billion to $16.9 billion.
The appropriations legislation, meanwhile, includes a $518 billion base defense budget, not including military-construction funding, or $21 billion less than the $539 billion in comparable funding the administration proposed in February.
Following the passage of the Budget Control Act in August, the White House said it supported a defense budget of $513 billion, without factoring in military construction.