Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CQ Today
May 7, 2008 By John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff
House Armed Services subcommittees Wednesday are expected to propose a significant pay raise for U.S. troops and severe cutbacks in spending for major weapons programs as they mark up the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill.
One subcommittee is expected to propose a 3.9 percent raise for military personnel, 0.5 percentage points higher than the Bush administration requested. Other panels will authorize hundreds of millions of dollars less than the president requested for missile defense programs and the Army’s Future Combat Systems, while adding about half a billion dollars to continue the F-22 Raptor fighter jet program.
Taken together, the likely recommendations represent a sharp break from the administration’s defense blueprint. The White House and defense contractors are resisting some of the cuts, but key lawmakers are undeterred. “The Congress is going to get what it wants,” said Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, a senior member of the committee. “The Congress makes the decisions.”
Wednesday’s markups are scheduled in the subcommittees on Military Personnel, Air and Land Forces, and Strategic Forces. On May 8, three more subcommittees will mark up their portions of the bill: Seapower and Expeditionary Forces; Readiness; and Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. The full committee plans a May 14 markup to approve the entire measure (HR 5658), which would authorize spending on national security programs at the Defense and Energy departments, although funds are appropriated separately.
The Senate Armed Services Committee marked up its draft version of the measure April 30, and the Senate is expected to take it up by the end of May.
One of the most significant proposals affects the F-22 Raptor fighter program. The Air and Land Forces Subcommittee is expected to propose adding $523 million to the budget to pay for “advanced procurement” of parts for future aircraft Congress has not yet authorized or appropriated funds to buy, according to Republican Phil Gingrey of Georgia, one of the main places the planes are built.
For fiscal 2009, the administration requested funds to build the last 20 F-22s and has left it to the next administration to decide whether to keep the production line going. The budget request contains no advance procurement funds.
Without the half-billion dollars in parts funding, the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., would have to decide whether to shut the line down or spend that money itself in a gamble that the next administration would continue ordering Raptors, Gingrey said. “That was my big fear,” he said.
The Senate panel’s bill would authorize the advanced procurement money but would allow the next president to use it for other purposes, including shutting down the F-22 production line.
Another major decision of the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee concerns the Army’s principal modernization program, the Future Combat Systems, a set of vehicles, robots and information technology intended to enable soldiers to have greater awareness on the battlefield and more effective weapons. The program has drawn criticism due to technical shortcomings and ballooning cost estimates.
The subcommittee is expected to recommend about $200 million less than the $3.3 billion the president requested, according to Todd Akin, R-Mo., the ranking subcommittee member and a proponent of the initiative in whose district many of the program’s managers live and work.
Abercrombie, the Air and Land Forces chairman, said the full-committee chairman, Ike Skelton, D-Mo., instructed subcommittee chairmen to reallocate funds toward battlefield needs to the greatest extent possible, and FCS helped pay those bills. Abercrombie said the program nonetheless will have enough money.
Regardless, Akin said he plans to offer an amendment in the full committee that would restore the proposed cut.
The Strategic Forces Subcommittee is expected to recommend several reductions to the president’s request for missile defense programs. The panel is expected to urge cutting the administration’s $421 million request for the Airborne Laser, a Boeing 747 equipped with an experimental laser to shoot down enemy missiles, by about 10 percent, said Terry Everett, R-Ala., the panel’s ranking Republican. Everett said he would seek to restore the funds when the full committee meets. The Senate version recommends a reduction of $45 million.
In addition, the administration’s proposed deployment of anti-missile interceptors and radars in Poland and the Czech Republic will continue to receive close congressional scrutiny this year. The Strategic Forces panel is expected to authorize less funding than requested and to place other restrictions on the program, said Everett, without being more precise. Ellen O. Tauscher, D-Calif., the panel’s chairwoman, has previously suggested such recommendations are coming. Everett said he would try to restore some of the cuts.
“I expect there will be amendments offered in the full committee to modify funding levels from the subcommittee mark on European missile defense,” he said.
The Senate panel recommended that the European system not be deployed until certain conditions, including parliamentary approval in both countries, are met.
The congressional strings on the European missile defense funding have alarmed the administration. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, in an April 30 letter to House Armed Services Committee leaders, said full funding of the program was needed to ensure bilateral agreements could go forward and enable “defense of the homeland and U.S. allies.”
“Full funding would also send a strong signal to Iran that the United States and NATO are serious about developing effective missile defenses and to Russia that there is bipartisan support for going forward with or without Moscow’s cooperation,” he added.
The Military Personnel panel is expected to adopt a provision drafted by Chairwoman Susan A. Davis, D-Calif., to authorize the 3.9 percent military pay raise authorized by the Senate panel, aides said, making it likely that those in uniform will get a larger raise this year than the president proposed.
May 7, 2008 By John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff
House Armed Services subcommittees Wednesday are expected to propose a significant pay raise for U.S. troops and severe cutbacks in spending for major weapons programs as they mark up the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill.
One subcommittee is expected to propose a 3.9 percent raise for military personnel, 0.5 percentage points higher than the Bush administration requested. Other panels will authorize hundreds of millions of dollars less than the president requested for missile defense programs and the Army’s Future Combat Systems, while adding about half a billion dollars to continue the F-22 Raptor fighter jet program.
Taken together, the likely recommendations represent a sharp break from the administration’s defense blueprint. The White House and defense contractors are resisting some of the cuts, but key lawmakers are undeterred. “The Congress is going to get what it wants,” said Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, a senior member of the committee. “The Congress makes the decisions.”
Wednesday’s markups are scheduled in the subcommittees on Military Personnel, Air and Land Forces, and Strategic Forces. On May 8, three more subcommittees will mark up their portions of the bill: Seapower and Expeditionary Forces; Readiness; and Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. The full committee plans a May 14 markup to approve the entire measure (HR 5658), which would authorize spending on national security programs at the Defense and Energy departments, although funds are appropriated separately.
The Senate Armed Services Committee marked up its draft version of the measure April 30, and the Senate is expected to take it up by the end of May.
One of the most significant proposals affects the F-22 Raptor fighter program. The Air and Land Forces Subcommittee is expected to propose adding $523 million to the budget to pay for “advanced procurement” of parts for future aircraft Congress has not yet authorized or appropriated funds to buy, according to Republican Phil Gingrey of Georgia, one of the main places the planes are built.
For fiscal 2009, the administration requested funds to build the last 20 F-22s and has left it to the next administration to decide whether to keep the production line going. The budget request contains no advance procurement funds.
Without the half-billion dollars in parts funding, the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., would have to decide whether to shut the line down or spend that money itself in a gamble that the next administration would continue ordering Raptors, Gingrey said. “That was my big fear,” he said.
The Senate panel’s bill would authorize the advanced procurement money but would allow the next president to use it for other purposes, including shutting down the F-22 production line.
Another major decision of the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee concerns the Army’s principal modernization program, the Future Combat Systems, a set of vehicles, robots and information technology intended to enable soldiers to have greater awareness on the battlefield and more effective weapons. The program has drawn criticism due to technical shortcomings and ballooning cost estimates.
The subcommittee is expected to recommend about $200 million less than the $3.3 billion the president requested, according to Todd Akin, R-Mo., the ranking subcommittee member and a proponent of the initiative in whose district many of the program’s managers live and work.
Abercrombie, the Air and Land Forces chairman, said the full-committee chairman, Ike Skelton, D-Mo., instructed subcommittee chairmen to reallocate funds toward battlefield needs to the greatest extent possible, and FCS helped pay those bills. Abercrombie said the program nonetheless will have enough money.
Regardless, Akin said he plans to offer an amendment in the full committee that would restore the proposed cut.
The Strategic Forces Subcommittee is expected to recommend several reductions to the president’s request for missile defense programs. The panel is expected to urge cutting the administration’s $421 million request for the Airborne Laser, a Boeing 747 equipped with an experimental laser to shoot down enemy missiles, by about 10 percent, said Terry Everett, R-Ala., the panel’s ranking Republican. Everett said he would seek to restore the funds when the full committee meets. The Senate version recommends a reduction of $45 million.
In addition, the administration’s proposed deployment of anti-missile interceptors and radars in Poland and the Czech Republic will continue to receive close congressional scrutiny this year. The Strategic Forces panel is expected to authorize less funding than requested and to place other restrictions on the program, said Everett, without being more precise. Ellen O. Tauscher, D-Calif., the panel’s chairwoman, has previously suggested such recommendations are coming. Everett said he would try to restore some of the cuts.
“I expect there will be amendments offered in the full committee to modify funding levels from the subcommittee mark on European missile defense,” he said.
The Senate panel recommended that the European system not be deployed until certain conditions, including parliamentary approval in both countries, are met.
The congressional strings on the European missile defense funding have alarmed the administration. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, in an April 30 letter to House Armed Services Committee leaders, said full funding of the program was needed to ensure bilateral agreements could go forward and enable “defense of the homeland and U.S. allies.”
“Full funding would also send a strong signal to Iran that the United States and NATO are serious about developing effective missile defenses and to Russia that there is bipartisan support for going forward with or without Moscow’s cooperation,” he added.
The Military Personnel panel is expected to adopt a provision drafted by Chairwoman Susan A. Davis, D-Calif., to authorize the 3.9 percent military pay raise authorized by the Senate panel, aides said, making it likely that those in uniform will get a larger raise this year than the president proposed.