Senate panel clears $594B Defense appropriations bill

“I have opposed every bill that the committee has reported
this year, not because they have no merit, but because I cannot support a
topline $91 billion above the level at which across-the-board cuts will kick
in,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the committee, said
before Thursday’s vote.

{mosads}The dispute has stalled the appropriations process — the
Senate failed to move the Transportation bill forward on the floor Thursday over
a GOP filibuster — and leaves the Defense spending bill with an uncertain
future. Pentagon officials have stressed the importance of passing an appropriations bill rather than operating on a continuing resolution as the department grapples with sequestration cuts.

The size of the Defense bill is not part of the congressional disagreement:
The House and Senate Defense measures are only $3 billion apart, as the House
kept Defense spending at pre-sequester levels through cuts to other
discretionary budgets.

“They assume that sequester will continue, and they put a
moat around Defense so that all $91 billion in cuts come out of domestic
funding bills,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said
Thursday, raising objections to potential cuts to Head Start, Meals on Wheels
and grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Mikulski called again Thursday for a resolution to
sequestration, which has been elusive in the two years since the Budget Control
Act was passed, and Republicans who voted against the Defense appropriations
bill agreed with her.

“We screwed ourselves here,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.), one of the eight GOP no votes. “And somebody on this body on the
Republican and Democratic sides needs to find a way to work with our president to
undo this.”

The $594.4 Senate Defense bill includes $516.4 billion in
base defense spending and $77.8 billion for the war in Afghanistan.

The $598.3 billion Defense bill that passed the House last
week included $512.5 billion in base Pentagon spending and $85.8 billion in
Overseas Contingency Operations.

The Senate panel included an amendment to the Defense bill Thursday
from Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) that would require congressional approval before
the U.S. uses military force in Syria. The amendment passed 20-10, with support and opposition on both sides of the
aisle, after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) requested a tweak in the language of the
measure.

The bill includes an additional $2.9 billion to restore
shortfalls in training and equipment accounts caused by sequestration cuts in the
2013 budget.

The legislation fully funds the F-35 program in 2014 but includes
limitations on the program’s funding in 2015 until testing and software delivery issues
are resolved.