The Senate is poised to vote on a budget agreement early Friday morning, which would pave the way for the passage of the 2016 defense policy bill. The two-year agreement passed the House on Wednesday. It raises budget caps for defense and non-defense spending by a total of $112 billion for 2016 and 2017.
It would also spread $32 billion over two years in a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations. The agreement was crafted by the White House and Democratic and Republican leadership, and passed with the support of 79 Republicans in the House. However, since the amount for 2016 is $5 billion less than what the 2016 defense policy bill authorizes, the Armed Services Committees are looking now at what to cut.
Sources say the $5 billion cut will be painful for some Pentagon programs, since the Defense Department has already cut back a lot under the budget caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act. “There’s not fat that you can just chip and say, ‘OK, this doesn’t matter,’ ” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said on Wednesday. “It’ll matter. It’ll be significant.”
One source who works in the defense industry said of the Pentagon’s major budget areas, he predicts procurement will be targeted first, research and development second, and operations and maintenance third. However, the priority is getting the defense policy bill passed, after the president vetoed it last week.
Lawmakers are looking at two paths — to override the president’s veto on Nov. 5, and then following up with a second bill to adjust the bill’s funding level, or writing a new bill to adjust the funding level. “I don’t know for sure which [way] we’ll go,” Thornberry said. Thornberry said he thinks the House is in the “ballpark” of having enough votes to override the veto.
The final version of the bill passed the House by 270-156. That would not be enough to override a veto. But Thornberry said most of the 10 Republicans who voted against the bill have said they would switch their vote. He’s also talked to some Democrats who will vote to override the veto, he said.