The House began debating a $519.2 billion defense appropriations bill yesterday, voting down proposals to cut funding for the Afghanistan war and missile defense.
Many amendments are expected to the Pentagon spending measure, because the House OK’d on June 29 a so-called open rule allowing House members to offer unlimited proposed changes to the bill on the floor. The chamber is set to resume debate today.
The House rejected a series of amendments to cut funding from the bill last night, including a proposal from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) to slash Afghanistan war monies by $21 billion, which failed in a 107-312 vote. It also killed, via similar vote margins, proposals from Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) to cut more than $2 billion from the overall legislation.
The House rejected an amendment from Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) to remove $998 million from the bill the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) added to the Pentagon’s budget proposal for an additional DDG-51 Navy destroyer.
It also struck down proposals to:
– eliminate $250 million for the Defense Rapid Innovation Program (proposed by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas)),
– cut $75 million from the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system (offered Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)),
– allow no funding for more than 300 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (also from Markey), and
– slash $1.25 million in funding for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund (crafted by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.)).
The HAC approved on May 17 the bill up for debate, which calls for a $519.2 billion base defense budget and $88.5 billion in additional war funding. The HAC measure exceeds spending limits dictated by the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the Senate Appropriations Committee plans to heed the law and support a base defense bill that is $8 billion less than the one before the House.
The HAC bill makes similar proposals regarding weapon systems to those in the versions of the policy-setting defense authorization bill approved in recent months by the full House and the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).
Those proposals, in the three bills, include adding funding for the Navy to buy a second Virginia-class submarine in FY ’14, blocking the Pentagon’s plan to allow a temporary shutdown in production of the M1 Abrams tank, prohibiting the administration from spending funding on the Medium Extended Air Defense System, and thwarting proposed reductions in Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve aircraft.
It is not clear when the SAC might craft its version of the FY ’13 defense appropriations bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested last week the Senate will not take up any FY ’13 appropriations bills for federal agencies before FY ’12 ends Sept. 30.
“Until the Republicans get real, we can’t do that,” he said July 10, charging GOP lawmakers have “refused to adhere to the law that guides this country.”
House Republicans have been advancing the spending bills, including the Pentagon’s, with different topline figures than dictated by the Budget Control Act of 2011. Overall, the House GOP wants to spend less on the 12 appropriations bills than the law says, but boost Pentagon funding.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has said Obama could veto the HAC-approved appropriations plan, saying it adds too much funding to the Pentagon’s funding request and makes unacceptable program changes.