Week ahead: Deployment, defense funding loom as topics of discussion

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/354302-week-ahead-deployment-defense-funding-loom-as-topics-of-discussion

Week ahead: Deployment, defense funding loom as topics of discussion

By Ellen Mitchell and Rebecca Kheel - 10/09/17 12:00 AM EDT

The Senate is out for a week that begins with the Columbus Day holiday, but military officials will flood Washington for the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army. The conference, which takes place Monday through Wednesday, will include speeches from Secretary Defense James Mattis, Army chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.

The discussion is expected to center around funding the service and the larger Department of Defense as Congress in the next few months will reconcile their versions of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The House in July approved $696.5 billion in defense spending, with a base budget of $621.5 billion and $75 billion in war money, known as Overseas Contingency Operations funds. The Senate’s bill, passed in August, would authorize $640 billion for the base budget and $60 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations dollars. To fund either amount, lawmakers must lift spending caps set under the 2011 Budget Control Act. Mattis and Milley for months have painted a bleak picture of the state of the military under the budget caps, which only allow $549 billion in defense spending.

Also likely to come up at the annual meeting is the deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan. More than 3,000 U.S. troops are to be deployed to the country as part of President Trump’s strategy, announced in August.