House Appropriations Committee leaders seems likely to approve a $740 billion topline spending number for defense, according to Politico’s National Security Daily. That is about $25 billion more than the administration first requested.

The higher number is more in line with what defense authorizers in both chambers have agreed to and what the Senate Appropriations Committee has indicated it supports.

Appropriators are scrambling to assemble an omnibus spending bill that can pass both chambers before Feb. 18, the expiration date of the current continuing resolution.

Army National Guard photo by Capt. Brendan Cassidy