Week ahead: House tees up $578B defense spending bill for 2017

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http://thehill.com/policy/defense/322239-week-ahead-house-tees-up-578b-defense-spending-bill-for-2017

Week ahead: House tees up $578B defense spending bill for 2017

By Rebecca Kheel - 03/06/17 06:00 AM EST


The House is getting around to tackling defense spending for fiscal 2017, five months after the fiscal year began. The Pentagon, like the rest of the government, is operating at fiscal 2016 funding levels currently since Congress passed a stopgap spending measure at the end of last year. The stopgap measure, called a continuing resolution (CR), doesn't expire until the end of April. But congressional leadership is hoping to pass the defense spending bill for fiscal 2017 earlier so that the Pentagon has budget certainty and Congress can turn its attention to next fiscal year.

The bill, introduced Thursday, would provide $577.9 billion for the Pentagon. That breaks down to $516.1 billion in base budget funding and $61.8 billion for the war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. Not included in the bill is the expected supplemental budget request from the administration, which Congress is still waiting to get. Coupled with the funding from the CR, the bill would mean the Pentagon gets $583.7 billion for fiscal 2017.

The funding level is consistent with the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill signed into law by former President Obama in December and agreed to by both the House and the Senate.

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to take up the rule for the bill at 5 p.m. Tuesday, meaning the bill will come to the House floor midweek.
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