The House Appropriations Committee will meet today in a closed session to mark up a $1.15 trillion defense appropriations bill. The committee released the bill and a summary yesterday.
The amount matches what the administration requested and what the House is considering authorizing through the defense authorization bill.
“Thanks to this legislation, we are ensuring our armed forces remain equipped, prepared, and ready for whatever threat emerges,” Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in a press release. “The result is a stronger military, a more secure nation and a clear message to our adversaries: the United States will remain the world’s preeminent fighting force and the strongest guarantor of preserving freedom.”
The committee’s top Democrats said the spending level is too high.
“[T]his level of defense spending comes at the cost of cuts to domestic investments like education and workforce training, as well as international diplomacy,” Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) said in a statement.
The bill doesn’t include all of the administration’s defense spending priorities. It requested some of those be included in a separate budget reconciliation package that would need only Republican support, but GOP Senate appropriators seem to have cooled on the idea.
“I think it’s safe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill. So, it’s really not an option,” Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week, according to Defense One.
Army photo of Rep. Cole by Jao’Torey Johnson
