By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate is expected to debate this week a defense appropriations bill for the remainder of this fiscal year that would cut $17.3 billion from President Barack’s Obama’s Pentagon proposal.
The fiscal year 2011 defense appropriations bill is attached to a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the federal government starting March 18, when a current CR will expire, and last until the end of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last Friday he does not expect that seven-month measure to pass the chamber. The Senate will take up a second budget bill he also expects to fail: a full-year continuing resolution the Republican-controlled House passed Feb. 16 after extensive debate.
Both the House-passed bill and the one before the Senate, notably, would not fund the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter second engine.
The new seven-month budget plan, unveiled by the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) last Friday, would provide a total of $671.5 billion for the Pentagon’s base budget and war funding.
“In total, the defense budget is $17.3 billion less than the president’s budget request, but still provides the authorized pay raise for military personnel, protects funding for the Defense Health Program, and supports force protection initiatives and the readiness accounts for our men and women in uniform,” the SAC said in a statement.
The Senate committee argued its plan for funding weapons activities is more reasonable than the House-passed plan, which calls for cutting $312 million from Obama’s FY ’11 weapons request.
Overall, for the entire federal budget, the House plan would cut $61 billion from Obama’s request, while the SAC measure would trim it by $51 billion.
Reid argues the Senate panel’s version is “more responsible.”
“We’re eliminating redundancies, ending unnecessary bureaucratic programs and cutting funding for earmarks,” the Senate Democratic leader said.