Senate panel clears $355 billion Defense bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday unanimously approved a $355.4 billion Defense spending bill, which emphasized military modernization and the needs of service members and their families.

The bill included 4.1 percent across-the-board pay raise for those serving in uniform.

The bipartisan bill (H.R. 5010) was approved 29-to-0 in a package with two other appropriations bills for Foreign Operations and the Commerce, Justice and State departments.

The measure is $11.4 billion less than the Bush administration requested, although $10 billion is being withheld to help cover future costs of the global war on terrorism. Committee members have said they will take up the $10 billion request when the president provides specific details.

The bill provides $7.7 billion for missile defense, with $6.9 billion of those funds directly funding ballistic missile defense programs. An additional $814 million could be allocated, at the president's discretion, to either missile defense or counter-terrorism efforts.

The committee passed an amendment proposed by Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. asking the president to come back to Congress to specify-in advance-how he planned to spend $814 million.

The bill included $71.5 billion for procurement, or $4.3 billion more than the president's request. Among the additions are: $1.4 billion in the ship building account, $586 million for 15 C-17 aircraft in addition to $3.9 billion request for just 12; $188 million more for Army aircraft, including $96 million for more Blackhawk helicopters. There is also $240 million for four F/A-18 fighters for the Navy tacked on to the $3.27 billion request for 44 of these aircraft. There is also funds for four new navy ships, submarine overhauls and other vessels and program completions totaling $9.2 billion.

Appropriators also hoped to "transform" the Army to the post-Cold War fighting environment by their boost of $105 million to the Future Combat System. This program includes the heavy artillery system known as Crusader, which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced abruptly last month that he wanted to stop.

Compromises between powerful friends of the Crusader crafted in the House and by Senate authorizers, will continue development of some follow-on system at locations in Oklahoma, Minnesota and elsewhere now working on Crusader. The committee specified that $173 million of the total Future Combat System program go for a particular indirect fire cannon, though details were not available as of Thursday evening.

Operations and maintenance is funded at $114.8 billion while research, development, test and evaluation will get $56.1 billion. The measure also provided $416.7 million for the Nunn-Lugar program to control the spread of nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union and $58.4 million for humanitarian assistance, foreign disaster relief and de-mining programs.

The committee also unanimously approved several other Byrd amendments. They included:

• A manger's amendment specifying a dozen specific programs to be funded, such as depot maintenance in Fort Worth Texas and composite materials research.
• An amendment requiring the Defense Department to report to Congress twice a year on efforts to improve financial management.
• An amendment to increase basic research in the Navy by $1.5 million.