Week ahead: House tees up new vote on defense spending bill

House lawmakers in the coming week will again vote on a massive bill to fund the Pentagon for fiscal 2018.

The fiscal 2018 defense appropriations bill, which the House Appropriations Committee reintroduced on Thursday, is expected to come to the floor as early as Tuesday.

The vote is mostly symbolic, as the House has twice passed defense appropriations for the fiscal year. The Senate has not voted on a defense spending bill, however, because Congress has yet to agree on a top-line dollar figure for defense and nondefense funding.

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House leadership earlier this month promised defense hawks and conservatives another vote on the bill in exchange for their votes on a stopgap spending measure needed to avert a government shutdown.

“It is past time that this essential, must-pass Department of Defense funding bill is enacted into law,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) said in a statement last week. “Congress must act responsibly and quickly to get these dollars out the door and where they are needed as soon as possible.”

The bill is “virtually the same” as the previous fiscal 2018 defense bills, according to a committee release.

The legislation allocates $659.2 billion to the Pentagon — $584 billion for the base budget and $75.1 billion for a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. The biggest difference is a $1.2 billion increase in OCO for Afghanistan operations.

Lawmakers also must to agree to lift government spending caps for both domestic and defense programs for the bill to become law.

The House vote comes ahead of the Feb. 8 expiration of the fourth continuing resolution of fiscal 2018.

Several outside events and House and Senate hearings will also take place in the coming week.

Qatari Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah will talk about U.S.-Qatari military-to-military relations at 10 a.m. Monday at the Heritage Foundation. http://bit.ly/2DFPElI

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will speak at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the Wilson Center. http://bit.ly/2DA8KWi

The House Rules Committee will consider a rule for floor debate of the fiscal 2018 defense appropriations bill at 5 p.m. Monday in House room 313. http://bit.ly/2DzD1o5

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the situation on the Korean peninsula with testimony from outside experts at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Hart Senate Office Building, room 216. http://bit.ly/2DGKaXJ

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on how to prepare the military for future warfare with testimony from outside experts at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2118. http://bit.ly/2ncEn1K

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the economic relationship between the United States, Canada and Mexico with testimony from former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Wayne at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 419. http://bit.ly/2ndyLn7

Former Marines commandant retired Gen. James Conway and former Turkish armed forces attaché retired Maj. Gen. Ahmet Bertan Nogaylaroglu will talk about the U.S.-Turkish alliance at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the National Press Club. http://bit.ly/2rCXCXe

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