By Emelie Rutherford
Lawmakers and aides said they don’t see any scenarios in which spending on Pentagon weapon systems will be added to the massive economic-stimulus bill that, in its current form, also lacks previously proposed shipbuilding measures.
House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) said Pentagon programmatic spending was never a consideration for the legislation slated for a House floor vote next week.
“We’re not going to do that in this bill, that spins out too slow,” Murtha told Defense Daily, echoing statements of defense-minded officials in and out of Congress.
The powerful lawmaker said he asked the military services to “give me whatever they had that could be started right away” and added to the legislation intended to give a near- term jolt to the economy.
“I said to them, give me infrastructure, give me operation and maintenance money, give me money that can be spent on sewer and water projects (and) buildings…(and) housing,” he said.
Murtha also rejected calls by some lawmakers to attach the forthcoming supplemental war-funding bill to the stimulus package.
“This is not the place to do it,” he said, noting the Pentagon has not made such a proposal.
War operations are covered under a supplemental for the first part of fiscal year 2009 that is intended to last until June, Murtha noted. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has stayed on in the Obama administration, has given Murtha and other lawmakers a rough outline of the next supplemental request, valued at $69.7 billion, yet said it will be expanded (Defense Daily, Jan. 6).
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) called Wednesday during the House Appropriations Committee’s (HAC) markup of the stimulus legislation for the next war supplemental to be attached to it.
“If we package the war supplemental as part of this legislation, we would not have yet another emergency spending package to bring in a new wave of borrowing,” Kirk, a HAC member, told Defense Daily. Kirk said he sees no need to add weapon-spending to the stimulus bill he believes is already too large.
The HAC Wednesday night approved $358 billion of the stimulus bill, which has an overall price tag of $825 billion and is made up of spending and tax cuts. Republicans have grumbled about the bill, and party leaders seeking more tax relief said they plan to meet next week with Obama about an alternate plan, which they have not shared with the press.
The portion of the stimulus measure the HAC marked up Wednesday includes transportation and infrastructure projects that are intended to start in the near term. It includes more than $11 billion in varied types of Pentagon spending: more than $8.4 billion for Department of Defense facilities, $1 billion for Veterans Administration facilities, $1.8 billion for making military bases more energy efficient, and $350 million for defense research into using renewable energy for weapon-systems and bases.
Murtha said he is “pleased” with this rundown, but acknowledged: “I would like to see more in construction, I’d like to see more in sewage and water.”
The current bill does not include shipbuilding items previously endorsed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: $153 million for a Coast Guard Great Lakes icebreaker and $45 million for the Maritime Administration’s Title XI shipbuilding loan-guarantee program (Defense Daily, Jan. 13). The American Shipbuilding Association also has lobbied to try to secure that funding.
Transportation committee members grumbled at a hearing yesterday about some of the spending they proposed not being included in the HAC’s stimulus bill.