Budget/Appropriations

The senators are concerned automatic cuts would hobble the military and leave it unable to carry out some future missions.

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The White House threatened to veto the bill because of a provision regarding the detention of terror suspects.

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Four Republican senators will unveil a proposal to replace $600 billion in automatic Defense cuts with other budget reductions.

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Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said Tuesday that legislation was in the works to wipe out $600 billion in DOD cuts.

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A House-Senate compromise version of a Pentagon policy bill would shift to Lockheed Martin the full burden of paying for new F-35 cost breaches.

The Pentagon earlier this year informed lawmakers of a substantial cost spike in the latest batch of F-35s, drawing the ire of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

A bicameral conference committee unveiled a final version of a Pentagon authorization bill Monday evening that would require the "contract for the sixth lot of aircraft Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP 6) and all subsequent LRIP contracts is a fixed price contact," according to a summary issued by SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

What's more, it would require Lockheed take on "full responsibility for any costs above the target cost specified in the contract."

Pentagon officials have touted their contract talks with Lockheed for the fourth and fifth batches of the fighter jets, but the conference panel's language is even tougher on Lockheed.

Lawmakers agreed on a $662 billion Defense authorization bill they believe will avoid an administration veto over terror suspect detentions.

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Sen. McCaskill says House members “boldly flaunted” the earmarks ban, but Armed Services Chairman McKeon insists the amendments aren’t earmarks.

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The Joint Chiefs chairman detailed at an Atlantic Council-sponsored forum the first tranche of a $350 billion spending cut.

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The House on Wednesday afternoon approved a motion to instruct House conferees to the National Defense Authorization Act to fight for language in the bill aimed at improving sexual assault prevention and response training in the military.

The House version of the bill, H.R. 1540, includes language on this issue, while the Senate bill does not. But the House voted 421-2 in favor of the motion to tell conferees to fight to maintain this language during the House-Senate conference, a warning that the House side will enter negotiations with a firm mindset toward keeping the language intact.

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House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) argued Tuesday that Congress needs the threat of automatic spending cuts next year to reach an agreement for reducing the deficit. 

Pushing back against lawmakers who want to roll back the sequester, Hoyer said an undisciplined Congress needs the threat of enormous and unpopular spending cuts to get the country's fiscal house in order.

"The sequester was the discipline," Hoyer said during a press briefing in the Capitol. "If you now simply spend time figuring out, 'Well how can we get around the sequester,' frankly it eliminates the discipline, it eliminates the incentive — the impetus — for arriving at a bigger deal in the next few months."

But, Hoyer was quick to add, "I hope the sequester never goes into effect because it's not a rational way to proceed."

Under the sequester, automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion — split between defense and civilian programs — will take effect in 2013. The process was triggered last month when the now-defunct budget supercommittee failed to reach a bipartisan deal on deficit reduction.

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