Senate unveils $700 billion defense authorization plan

GhostZ06

Steel Belt
@Steel
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
32,675
Reaction score
9,731
WASHINGTON — Senate lawmakers introduced a $700 billion defense authorization bill on Wednesday that sets the stage for another financial showdown with House budget planners and White House officials over the right target for national defense planning.

The Senate draft calls for more base defense spending than either of the other plans, fewer troops and a smaller military pay raise than the House proposal, but 54 more aircraft and five more naval ships than the president had planned.

In a statement, Senate Armed Services Committee officials said the moves are “necessary to help the U.S. military restore readiness, rebuild capacity, and modernize the force for future challenges.” Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said the plan will “start the process of rebuilding our military after six years of devastating cuts to our defense budget.”

Like the other spending proposals, the Senate plan hinges on finding a compromise fix for spending caps mandated by Congress for fiscal 2018, which has proven elusive for lawmakers in recent years.

The cap is set at $549 billion for defense base funding next year. The Senate plan calls for $640 billion in base defense spending, well above the $621 billion in the House plan and $603 billion outlined by the White House.

Republican defense lawmakers in the House and Senate — along with Pentagon officials — have argued that a sizable increase in military spending is needed in future budgets to help rebuild the services after more than a decade of wartime tempo. Democrats in both chambers have pushed for non-defense spending increases to accompany any military build-up, prompting the impasse. The Senate plan, which could be considered by the full chamber next month, calls for a 2.1 percent pay raise for troops in January, equal to the White House request but below the anticipated boost in military wages.

House lawmakers are pushing for a 2.4 percent raise, equal to the expected growth in private-sector pay. The difference saves about $200 million that Pentagon planners hope to redirect to training and modernization costs.

Senators are also looking for smaller boosts in end strength than their lower chamber counterparts.

The Senate plan would add 5,000 active-duty soldiers to the president’s request (instead of the 10,000 in the House plan), 1,000 Army Guardsmen and reservists (instead of the House’s 7,000), and 1,000 Marines (instead of 2,700 Air National Guard members and Navy reservists).

Instead, the funding boosts in the Senate authorization plan would go to new equipment. It calls for $3.1 billion more than the White House to buy an extra 24 joint strike fighters, $400 million to buy two more KC-46A tankers, and $1.2 billion extra for 12 more MC-130J aircraft.

The Navy would get $739 million more to buy 10 more F/A-18 Super Hornets and $1 billion more for six extra P-8A Poseidon aircraft.





http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/hasc-ndaa-russell-speier-rapist-ucmj-changes



Jesus fucking Christ....


these assholes are fucking stupid there is more important shit we need to increase then fucking military spending. We could have put this in space program and in the damn science and R&D.....



but no these asshats want military spending. Note im for a big budget if done right, but right now we are not int he cold war
 
Well, there goes any hope of actually implementing the infrastructure bill. Consider that campaign promise "stalled" in perpetuity, now.

Another broken promise to help the working man.
 
That is the same amount, they touted to the public, as the TARP safety net they gave to Wall Street banks.

Trump is suppose to be the anti-politicians, but of course we have all been bamboozled once again.
 
Let's see

That should cover the Pentagon's wallpaper, gardening, vending machines, sharpies, erasers, and Pizza Hut delivery

Barely
 
yet we can't afford healthcare for everyone..
 
I work in defense and even I have to admit this is a joke. Either these people really don't give a shit or something bad is brewing on the horizon. Either is troubling.
 
Yes it's insane.
No, we shouldn't build muh roads instead.
They should simply spend less and pass more tax cuts.
 
Well, there goes any hope of actually implementing the infrastructure bill. Consider that campaign promise "stalled" in perpetuity, now.

Another broken promise to help the working man.
Senate != Trump
 
WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee voted 60-1 to authorize $696.5 billion in defense spending for 2018, which adds $21 billion of $31 billion of DoD-requested weapons programs left unfunded by the Trump budget request.

Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said the National Defense Authorization Act takes “significant steps toward rebuilding the military,” and a 355 ship Navy, with $6 billion added for shipbuilding.

“There are many moving pieces to the broader budget picture that will develop over this year, but for today and for our responsibilities as the Armed Services Committee, it is important for us to put down this marker for what we need for national defense,” he said.

But the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, countered that Congress has “vastly over-promised” on what it can deliver on defense spending, given its dynamics. The bill’s base-budget exceeds the $549 billion statutory budget cap for defense, and easing the cap means navigating both deficit hawks in the House and Senate Democrats who will not lift caps without increased domestic spending.

“We have basically not been honest with the American people about the choices that we face, and Oct. 1” — the start of fiscal 2018 — “this all comes to a head, when all these promises that don’t add up leave us in a very bad place,” said Smith, D-Wash. “It is highly unlikely at the end of this process we will have $696 billion.”

Click here for more budget coverage from Defense News.

The HASC voted at 11:59 p.m. to send the bill to the House floor, making the nearly 14-hour mark up the fastest for the panel's NDAA in recent years. Thornberry estimated at the top of the markup that a new paperless amendment process would save the committee an hour and $10,000.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, was the lone "no" vote. An fierce skeptic of U.S. activity in Syria, she cited what she said were vetting issues with the American program to train and equip Syrian fighters.

House GOP leaders this week put off consideration of a resolution setting numbers for the federal budget as conservatives pressed for deeper cuts to mandatory spending. However, there appeared to be agreement on the defense topline, with $511 billion for non-defense in fiscal 2018.

The NDAA would authorize $621.5 billion in the base budget and $75 billion in the OCO account. Ten billion dollars in base requirements would be funded through OCO.

Earlier in the day, Senate Armed Services Committee passed its draft of the annual authorization measure, with a different top line and different set of priorities that will have to be reconciled in coming months.

The NDAA covers the Defense Department and Department of Energy, so the HASC bill actually includes $592.8 billion in discretionary base dollars for the Pentagon and $20.8 billion for DoE.


http://www.defensenews.com/articles/hasc-overwhelmingly-passes-2018-defense-policy-bill



holy fucking shit we actually passed it
 
"If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately," Mattis said, before members of Congress at a National Security Advisory Council meeting, the US Global Leadership Coalition notes."
 
assholes are fucking stupid We could have put this in space program and in the damn science and R&D.....

but right now we are not int he cold war

Just the opposite. The Arms race and war is what truly drove science r&d and the space program. Military competition between superpower drove us to space the moon and exploring mars and out solar system. Peace time is stagnation.

Chinese military budget disagrees, real estimates peg it nearing 230 billion usd.
 
Just the opposite. The Arms race and war is what truly drove science r&d and the space program. Military competition between superpower drove us to space the moon and exploring mars and out solar system. Peace time is stagnation.

Chinese military budget disagrees, real estimates peg it nearing 230 billion usd.


not really. They arent investing in anything that really big. They should dump more into space tech so it gives are military an excuse to develop something crazy
 

Forum statistics

Threads
1,234,816
Messages
55,309,384
Members
174,732
Latest member
herrsackbauer
Back
Top