Week ahead: Defense negotiators search for deal

Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees are at a stalemate in the conference negotiations over a defense policy bill.

The negotiators had hoped to resolve their differences by July, but several disagreements stood in the way.

{mosads}Aides now say they hope a resolution will be reached before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Both sides say the main sticking point in the talks is whether to raise the costs of health insurance for troops and their families. The Senate version of the policy bill would raise pharmacy co-pays for certain drugs in order to help pay for other benefits, while the House committee rejected increasing costs for troops. 

House Armed Services Chairman, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), offered a compromise of accepting only 30 percent of the increased fees, but the Senate has not accepted it. 

Staffers from both sides are continuing to talk, but the “Big Four” — the chairmen and ranking members — will have the final say on a compromise.

The leaders of the committees started earlier than usual this year on their respective bills, which authorize Pentagon spending and programs.

The policy bill has passed Congress 53 years in a row. This year, President Obama has threatened to veto the legislation because it adheres to the funding levels in the GOP budget.

At issue is the budget caps imposed in 2011 on defense and nondefense spending. The White House wants those caps lifted across the board, but the GOP’s budget leaves them in place while increasing defense spending through a war fund.

Members of the committees say Obama’s veto threat is misplaced, since the policy bill only authorizes funding, not appropriates it. 

Congress appears poised to pass a short-term emergency bill to fund the government this month, including the Pentagon. Doing so would prevent the department from starting any new projects and could delay the start of new programs. 

Next week, the Senate is set to take another vote on the resolution to disapprove the Iran deal. 

The resolution is expected, again, to fail. Democratic senators blocked a motion to advance to a vote on the deal on Thursday, a move that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans slammed. 

Off Capitol Hill, Army Secretary John McHugh speaks on Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute.

Also Tuesday, Acting Under Secretary of Defense or Personnel and Readiness Brad R. Carson speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about proposed reforms for the military and civilian personnel systems.

On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on maritime security strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.

Also on Thursday, two subcommittees in the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold hearings. The Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa will hold a hearing titled, “Major Beneficiaries of the Iran Deal: IRGC and Hezbollah.”

And the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere will hear testimony about challenges to religious freedom in the Americas.

Jamie Morin, the Director of the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, is speaking Thursday on “The Contemporary Challenge of Cost and Program Analysis at the Pentagon.”

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