
The House Appropriations Committee has released its $694.6 billion defense spending bill ahead of a mark-up hearing on Wednesday, including $758 million to assist industrial base suppliers affected by the pandemic and details to procure additional F-35s and boost shipbuilding funds. The bill, which arrives $3.7 billion below the president’s budget request, includes $140.1 billion toward procurement and $104.3 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation spending. For the F-35 program, lawmakers call for $9.3 billion in the bill to…