By Emelie Rutherford
The House, via a 308-114 vote, granted final congressional approval yesterday to the long-delayed war-funding bill, after lawmakers agreed to remove much of the domestic spending tacked on to it.
The emergency supplemental legislation contains $4.9 billion in procurement funding, $512 more than President Barack Obama proposed on March 21.
Obama is expected to sign the measure that funds the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through the end of fiscal year 2010 on Sept. 30.
The supplemental took on different iterations, and the version the House passed yesterday is the same as the legislation the Senate approved back on May 27. The House added more non-war funding to the bill on July 1, for items including paying teachers, but Senate Republicans last Thursday rejected that version. Senators instead sent their House counterparts the May 27 bill, which was passed yesterday.
The supplemental includes monies for multiple aircraft the White House did not request, including $50.7 million for one Boeing [BA] AH-64 Apache and one Sikorsky [UTX] UH-60 Black Hawk, which are intended to replace battle-lost helicopters. It adds $51 million to outfit and buy ground stations for eight existing Northrop Grumman [NOC] MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned aircraft, which had been purchased for the Army’s now-canceled Future Combat Systems modernization program, for use by the Navy in the theater. It has $174 million not requested by the White House for two C-130J aircraft for the Coast Guard, which would replace maritime patrol aircraft lost in accidents in 2009 and 2006. The supplemental also adds $21 million in non-requested funding for an Automated Biometric Identification System for the Army to use in Afghanistan.
The supplemental funds several big-ticket items requested by the Pentagon, including $1.1 billion for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.
The measure does not include provisions added by the House on July 1, including language mandating the defense secretary assess programs for which the Pentagon plans to proceed to source selection during FY ’10 or FY ’11 (Defense Daily, July 13).
The $59 billion supplemental includes $33.5 billion for the Pentagon, and covers non-war related to the Haiti earthquake and Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates continually pled with lawmakers to pass the long-delayed supplemental. Officials warned of budget actions the Pentagon would take without the funding including delaying weapon-system programs and furloughing civilian employees.
The final vote was cast as House members prepare to leave Washington for the August recess next week.