House and Senate negotiators are nearing completion of the long-delayed fiscal year 2017 defense appropriations conference report, and the House expects to begin floor consideration of the legislation next week, congressional officials said March 1.
Due to political gridlock, Congress was unable to complete the bill before leaving town last year. The Department of Defense has been running on a series of continuing resolutions since FY 2017 began Oct. 1. 
While trying to finish the regular appropriations bill, Congress awaits the Trump administration’s FY 2017 defense budget amendment, which is expected to focus on readiness and total about $30 billion.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters that his committee discussed the budget and other topics in an informal, closed-door meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Feb. 28. The session, which lasted more than 90 minutes, was the secretary’s first opportunity to meet with the panel. Mattis was “incredibly open and anxious to work with us,” Thornberry said.
Thornberry expects Congress and the administration will continue to discuss what the size of the FY 2018 defense budget should be. While Trump has proposed $603 billion, Thornberry and his Senate counterpart, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have called that amount inadequate and are pushing for $640 billion.
“This is a work in progress, a conversation, between the two branches of government,” Thornberry said. “We’ll continue to have that conversation.”
The extra $37 billion advocated by Thornberry and McCain could pay for a host of items, such as modernizing Army and Marine Corps ground vehicles, buying dozens of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, extending the service life of Air Force F-16s, updating Army aviation, and acquiring more PAC-3, Patriot GEM-T and THAAD interceptor missiles, according to charts distributed by Thornberry’s staff.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s tactical air and land forces panel, announced that he has collected signatures from more than 100 colleagues for a letter urging Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to hold a vote to repeal across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration. Temporary measures that have given DoD relief from the cuts will soon end.
“We must end these harmful and senseless budget tactics,” Turner said in a statement.