The Republican-led House passed the defense budget bill last night, via a 326-90 vote, after rejecting Democrats’ attempt to strip nearly $8 billion from the spending plan to make it adhere to funding levels set in a deficit-controlling law.
The version of fiscal year 2013 defense appropriations legislation previously passed by the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) would fund the base Pentagon budget at $519.2 billion and provide $88.5 billion in war funding. Yet during the second day of the debate on the bill yesterday, the chamber passed a bipartisan amendment from Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to cut $1.1 billion in spending.
Democrats had wanted to trim more funding. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) offered an unsuccessful amendment to slash $7.6 billion from the bill’s topline to bring it in line with the Budget Control Act of 2011 spending caps. Democrats controlling the Senate have pledged to heed levels in that 2011 law, and House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) Chairman C.W. “Bill” Young (R-Fla.) has acknowledged he will have to lower the appropriations bill’s pricetage in future negotiations with his Senate counterparts (Defense Daily, June 29).
House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the so-called Super Committee that tried and failed to reach a broader deficit-cutting plan last year, blasted House Republicans for adding the nearly $8 billion to the defense bill.
Overall, House Republicans want to spend less on the 12 FY ’13 appropriations bills funding the federal government than the Budget Control Act law says, but they are proposing boosting Pentagon funding.
Van Hollen took to the House floor yesterday to point out that the Budget Control Act was supported by the House Republican chairmen of the Budget Committee, HASC, Appropriations Committee, and HAC-D.
“The (defense) bill that’s coming to the floor today is a violation of that bipartisan agreement,” Van Hollen said. He lamented that “the other bills that were coming through the appropriations committee are taking very deep cuts, deep cuts to education, deep cuts to health care programs.”
“Let’s stick to an agreement and let the people know that when this body comes to an understanding after hard-fought compromise, we stick with it for the public good,” he implored his colleagues.
Young has defended the HAC-approved defense bill, saying it funds needs Pentagon officials have shared with the HAC-D in public and private conversations, even if they are not explicitly cited in President Barack Obama’s FY ’13 budget proposal.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a statement on June 28 threatening that Obama could veto the HAC-approved appropriations plan, saying it exceeds Budget Control Act levels and makes unacceptable program changes.
The House passed a handful of amendments to the defense bill yesterday, including a measure to block the Pentagon from contracting with a Russian firm that supplies arms to the Syrian government. Members also approve amendment to block any funding to reduce the number of nuclear-weapon delivery vehicles including bomber aircraft and ballistic-missile submarines.
The House rejected a series of amendments to cut funding from the bill Wednesday night, including a proposal to remove $998 million for an additional DDG-51 Navy destroyer the HAC added. The chamber also struck down attempts to cut $250 million for the Defense Rapid Innovation Program, $75 million from the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, and $1.25 million for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund.
The HAC bill makes similar proposals regarding weapon systems to those in the versions of the policy-setting defense authorization bill approved by the full House on May 18 and the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on May 24.
The three bills all add monies to the Pentagon’s proposed budget for the Navy to buy an additional Virginia-class submarine in FY ’14, block the Pentagon’s plan to allow a temporary shutdown in production of the M1 Abrams tank, prohibit the administration from spending funding on the Medium Extended Air Defense System, and thwart proposed reductions in Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve aircraft.
It is not clear when the Senate Appropriations Committee may craft its version of the FY ’13 defense appropriations bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), mad that Republicans have not stuck to Budget Control Act spending levels, suggested last week the Senate will not take up any FY ’13 appropriations bills for federal agencies before FY ’12 ends Sept. 30.