Week Ahead: House Begins Work on Defense Bill
by Kristina Wong and Rebecca Kheel
March 7, 2016
It’s budget season and House lawmakers are busy drafting their annual defense authorization and spending bills.
Leaders of the House Armed Services Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee On Defense are consulting on the top line for defense spending in fiscal 2017.
Defense hawks are pushing for $574 billion for “base requirements,” which is $50 billion more than the $524 billion the administration has requested for its base defense budget.
Defense hawks argue that the $524 billion figure agreed to in the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act doesn’t take into account extra spending needed to reassure European allies worried about Russia or for the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Some of the $574 billion would come out of the $59 billion war fund, known as overseas contingency operations, which could then be refilled later in a separate supplemental bill under a new administration.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) says subcommittee markups could begin on April 20 and 21, with his draft out on April 25.
The full committee markup will take place on April 27, and the House will take up the authorization bill in mid-May, likely the week of the 16th, he said.
Also on tap, on Monday, Air Force officials will brief reporters on the state of the Air Force, as well as discuss the new Long Range Strike Bomber, officially designated as the B-21.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command; Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of U. S. Africa Command; and Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at Dirksen G50.
Votel will return to the Senate Armed Services Committee for a nomination hearing to be commander of U.S. Central Command at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Dirksen G50. Lt. Gen. Raymond Thomas’s nomination to be commander of special operations will also be considered at the hearing.
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