
The House and Senate on Tuesday unveiled the reconciled version of the fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill, which retains a $38.3 billion boost to wartime funding to circumvent mandatory spending caps.House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said he planned to file the conference report this afternoon, with a House vote slated for Thursday.The agreement authorizes $515 billion for the defense base budget and $89.2 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding.HASC’s ranking Democrat, Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said…