The White House and congressional leaders have reached a two-year budget deal that boosts defense and non-defense spending caps, but allots about $5 billion less to the Pentagon than the budgets put forward by the Obama administration and congressional GOP.
If passed, the legislation will prevent a government shutdown in December and release the Defense Department from the possibility of a yearlong continuing resolution that department and service leaders warned would cripple new programs and prevent existing ones from ramping up. It also boosts spending limits imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, giving the government two years of sequester relief.
The Bipartisan Budget Agreement proposes raising spending caps for defense from $523 billion to $548 billion in fiscal year 2016, and from $536 billion to $551 billion in fiscal year 2017. It also boosts the Overseas Contingency Operations funds to about $59 billion for each year.
Ultimately, that sum adds up to $5 billion less than the $612 billion desired by President Barack Obama and congressional defense committees for fiscal 2016, but lawmakers from both parties have indicated they will support the bill.
Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced the deal on Tuesday and said a vote could occur on the House floor this week.
“The agreement isn’t perfect by any means, but the alternative was a clean debt-ceiling decrease without any support for our troops, without any entitlement reforms,” he said. “This is a good deal for our troops, for our taxpayers, and for the American people.”
During a speech on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) urged members of both parties to vote in favor of the deal, which he said addresses both defense and domestic spending.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) told Defense Daily that he wished the compromise had given more money for defense, but ultimately he will support the deal and believes it will pass through both chambers.
“It’s not ideal. Neither the presidential budget nor the congressional budget really repaired all the damage that’s been done to defense through the cuts over the last four years, but two years of predictability is very important at a level that is close to what we and the president asked for, so I don’t see a better path,” he said.
Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) will also support the bill, he said. “I’m sorry that it’s $5 billion short, but it’s a lot better than what we would have gone through.”
Earlier this month, 102 House Republicans–including Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who heads HASC’s tactical air and land forces subcommittee–sent a letter to House leadership stating they would only support a budget that fully funds defense. However, after details of the bill become public, Turner said he would vote in favor of deal, which he believes will help provide stability to the Pentagon.
“The over 100 members that refused to vote for a FY2016 funding measure that cuts defense recognize the value of a two-year deal,” he said in a statement. “As we review the impact of these numbers, the Department of Defense will have to report to Congress on the effects of a two-year plan.”
Passing the budget deal would likely open a path for the National Defense Authorization Act to be passed and signed into law. Obama vetoed the bill last week to induce a compromise that raised the Budget Control Act caps for defense and nondefense.
At this point, lawmakers have not formed a strategy to push the bill through, but will likely form a plan after the House elects a new speaker this Thursday, Thornberry said. After changing it to reflect the budget deal, Congress could either reintroduce it or try to force it through on Nov. 5, when a veto override vote is scheduled.
During that process, HASC will work with House appropriators to determine where to find the $5 billion in cuts, he said.
“That’s real money and it’s got to be cut from somewhere, and it will have an impact,” he said. “It’s not like we had a lot of fat that we could do away with. I don’t know where those cuts will be made, but it’s going to be real money, real capability that we lose.”
Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, indicated that major defense programs and operations were unlikely to be affected by the $5 billion cut. “The deal is $5 billion less in total national defense than the president requested and Republicans were planning in their budget, but it should be relatively easy to find that much spare change by shaking the couch cushions,” he said.
While a contingent of fiscal conservatives will likely vote against the bill, there is a “good chance” of it passing on a bipartisan basis, he added.
During an early morning SASC hearing, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter welcomed the emerging budget deal and said he looks forward to reviewing the details.