Democrats in charge of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee plan to fund DOD in fiscal year 2020 at about $701 billion, Inside Defense reported Monday.
DOD’s base budget would be at $622.6 billion, military construction around $10 billion and Overseas Contingency Operations at $69 billion, an increase of less than 3% from fiscal 2019 defense spending, according to the report.
The defense subcommittee figures are expected to align with the $733 billion the House Armed Services Committee is considering for total U.S. defense spending, not just the Pentagon.
The White House requested $750 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2020. The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to mark its bill accordingly.
The two parties will still need to agree by Jan. 15 to raise mandatory budget caps on defense and non-defense spending, or face major sequestration cuts.
The committees will begin markups of their full appropriations and authorization bills this month, with the House Defense subcommittee scheduled May 15 and the Senate Armed Services Committee markup scheduled the week of May 20.
Pentagon photo by David Gleason
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Naval Academy plebes climb the Herndon Monument, a tradition symbolizing the successful completion of the midshipmen’s freshman year. The class of 2027 completed the climb in 2 hours, 19 minutes and 11 seconds. Navy photo by Stacy Godfrey