Budget/Appropriations

Hagel and Deputy Secretary Ash Carter plan to pay back 14 days of salary to the Treasury Department.

Without a budget compromise, Pentagon will have tough time avoiding furloughs.

All four Democrats voting against the budget plan are up for reelection in 2014 in states where Romney beat Obama.

The Senate’s Armed Services Committee’s markup of the Defense authorization bill will get a little more transparent this year, as three subcommittee will hold open markups of the annual Defense policy bill.

Last year, the Readiness subcommittee, led by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), was the only subpanel to hold an open markup of the bill, which authorizes roughly $600 billion in defense spending.

Now the Airland, Personnel and Readiness subcommittees will all make the markup process open when the committee works on the Defense authorization bill in June. The committee announced the schedule Thursday.

The full committee markup, where many of the bill’s contentious policy issues are hashed out and voted on, will remain closed, the committee said.

An amendment to a $984 billion Senate government funding bill that would have stripped funds from the Defense Department's drop-in biofuels program failed by a 40-59 vote on Wednesday.

Sen. Pat Toomey's (R-Pa.) amendment aimed to shift $60 million from the Defense biofuels effort to the department's operations and management budget.

The measure continued a fight between some defense- and budget-minded conservatives and Democrats and Midwest Republicans whose states host sizable biofuel operations.

A $400-million missile defense program that Congress has tried to kill multiple times this year may get a last-minute reprieve in the Senate measure to fund the government.

Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday that the $380 million in the continuing resolution for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) could cover the final year of development funding for the program, or cover termination costs if the program is killed.

House appropriators, however, say that money can only cover termination costs, not fund the program.

After failing to reach an agreement on amendments, the Senate will return this week to deal with its measure to fund the government through the end of the year.

Congress has a two-week recess scheduled after this week, so the pressure will be on to reach an agreement on the continuing resolution (CR).

The Pentagon has stressed to Congress the importance of the funding measure, because both the House and Senate versions include full-year Defense appropriations bills.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) filed two amendments to a $984 billion government funding bill on Thursday that would gut the military's alternative fuels program.

The amendments already are drawing criticism the program's supporters, which are largely Democrats. Sen. Mark Udall's office said Thursday that the Colorado Democrat would fight whatever measure comes to the floor.

One would strip $114 million from the Army, Navy and Air Force's alternative energy research and development programs. The other would remove $60 million from the Defense Department's biofuels program.

Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) introduced an amendment to the continuing resolution (CR) that would reverse the military services’ plans to cut tuition assistance for service members.

The amendment from Inhofe and Hagen would restrict the services from cutting tuition assistance below the amount provided in the CR.

That would effectively nullify the moves made by the Army, Air Force and Marines to suspend the program in 2013 in order to grapple with the spending cuts under sequestration. The Navy is reviewing whether to suspend its program.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) are combing through the $984 billion government funding bill that is before the Senate and said late Tuesday they intend to detail numerous examples of wasteful spending.