US lawmakers begin wrangling over annual defense policy bill

https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2017/10/25/us-lawmakers-begin-wrangling-over-annual-defense-policy-bill/

US lawmakers begin wrangling over annual defense policy bill

By: Joe Gould    1 day ago

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House and Senate conferees on a massive 2018 defense authorization bill met Wednesday to launch negotiations between the chambers’ competing bills. Lawmakers are expected to wrestle over a House proposal to create a new Space Corps as well as the size of the Army and the total number of F-35 fighter jets — among myriad other provisions. Staffers have been working for weeks, and this pass-the-gavel meeting was the first formal sit-down.

At a news conference to kick off the talks, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told reporters they expect to find agreement on a conference report quickly.
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Both versions propose increases well above the president’s defense budget request. The Senate bill calls for $640 billion in Pentagon and other national security spending, blowing past the $549 billion limit set by statutory budget caps. The House bill calls for $621 billion in national security spending. Complicating matters, there’s no consensus on lifting budget caps or a broader budget deal for fiscal 2018, and the federal government has been operating on a stopgap spending measure, called a continuing resolution, since last month.

The HASC’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, of Washington, used the news conference to lament the use of continuing resolutions and urge the passage of appropriations and defense policy bills.
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For his part, McCain continued to link defense budget caps to recent mishaps in which dozens of troops were hurt or killed, describing it as a “critical situation.” “This legislation cures some of those problems but they’ve been building up for a long time,” McCain said. “The responsibility to a large degree lies with the Congress of the United States for not providing sufficient funds for them. We hope to turn it around this time.”
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