By Emelie Rutherford
The House is poised to debate this week the defense appropriations bill, which House and Senate lawmakers finalized in public without convening an official conference committee.
The $600 billion-plus spending measure for fiscal year 2010, which started Oct. 1, includes funding President Barack Obama objected to for continued development of a second engine for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, developed by General Electric [GE] and Rolls-Royce. House and Senate appropriators opted against including $485 million Obama also balked at for missionizing presidential helicopters already built for the canceled VH-71 program; yet they did include more than $100 million to continue mission-systems work on the Lockheed Martin [LMT] chopper effort.
The “big four” defense appropriators–House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) and Ranking Member C.W. “Bill” Young (R-Fla.), along with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)–met privately last Friday to resolve differences in the bills that previously passed the House and Senate.
The final version of the bill was completed Sunday night. A conference committee will not be convened, congressional aides said.
House aides planned to file the legislation yesterday. The bill, though, was not available as of press time. The House Rules Committee as of press time had not yet scheduled a hearing, which will be held before the full House takes up the bill.
It remained unclear yesterday if the Senate will pass the bill before the end of the week. A temporary continuing resolution extending Defense Department spending at FY ’09 levels expires on Friday.
The HAC-D and House Appropriations State-Foreign Operations subcommittee canceled yesterday a joint hearing on the Afghan war that had been scheduled for today with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Murtha was hospitalized Sunday. Murtha spokesman Matt Mazonkey said the Afghanistan hearing was postponed because of his boss’ illness and “time constraints with moving a defense appropriations package through the floor this week.”
The defense bill faces multiple obstacles in Congress, including the objections of House Republicans who have vowed to vote against it if it includes unrelated legislation increasing the U.S. debt limit.