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March 6, 2013, 5:14 pm
By
Jeremy Herb
The government funding measure that passed in the House on
Wednesday included $348 million for the Medium Extended Air Defense System
(MEADS), but the money is not going to fund the program, appropriators say.
House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said that
the Appropriations bill follows the ban on funds for the missile defense
program that were included in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA).
MEADS has long been on the congressional chopping block, but
in past years the Pentagon has been able to prevent attempts to kill the
program, a joint missile defense venture between the United States, Italy and
Germany.
Read more...
Archived under:
Budget/Appropriations
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March 6, 2013, 12:46 pm
By
Jonathan Easley
The Obama administration has at times overstated the damage from the sequester, a senior House Democrat said Wednesday.
Read more...
Archived under:
News, Budget/Appropriations
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March 5, 2013, 5:42 pm
By
Jeremy Herb
The White House and Pentagon have not yet released their
2014 budget, but the House and Senate Armed Services committees nevertheless kicked
off their budget posture hearings on Tuesday with the military brass.
The commanders of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special
Operations Command testified before the Senate panel Tuesday, while the heads
of U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Strategic Command were before the House
committee.
There’s certainly plenty to talk about — the military
leaders were asked detailed questions about the impacts of sequestration and
the continuing resolution, they discussed threats facing the United States, and
Gen. James Mattis gave his
recommendation for U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan post-2014.
But for the initial hearings, the 2014 budget was not yet on
the agenda.
Read more...
Archived under:
Budget/Appropriations
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March 5, 2013, 12:27 pm
By
Jeremy Herb
House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) pushed
his committee to support the House’s continuing resolution that includes an appropriations bill for the Pentagon.
During the committee’s first hearing Tuesday on the
yet-to-be-released 2014 budget, McKeon repeatedly stressed how important the
Defense appropriations bill is for the Pentagon to have some budget flexibility as
it faces across-the-board cuts under sequestration.
“Now this committee, last year, completed our National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA),” McKeon said. “That bill has no effect unless the appropriations bill is passed.”
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Archived under:
Appropriations, Budget/Appropriations
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March 4, 2013, 9:24 pm
By
Erik Wasson and Jeremy Herb
Bill gives flexibility to Pentagon, ensures FBI maintains staff, increases embassy security and gives Forest Service money to fight fires.
Read more...
Archived under:
Appropriations, Budget/Appropriations
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March 4, 2013, 7:12 pm
By
Jeremy Herb
The Topline: The
House Appropriations Committee on Monday introduced a bill that would erase one
of the Pentagon’s major budget headaches.
The legislation, which will be considered this week, includes
a full 2013 appropriations bill in the six-month continuing resolution (CR) that
would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.
The measure would give the Pentagon an additional $10.4
billion in its operations and maintenance accounts that would fund critical
priorities like training, weapons maintenance and the defense health program
that would be threatened under a full-year continuing resolution. The money comes from more than $10 billion in
reductions to personnel ($3.6 billion), research and development ($2.5 billion)
and procurement ($4.2 billion), compared to 2012 funding levels.
The Pentagon has warned that the double whammy of a
full-year CR combined with sequestration would be devastating for the military,
and has urged Congress to at least solve the CR issue before the current resolution
expires March 27.
While there is bipartisan support for the Defense
appropriations bill — as well as the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs
appropriations bills also in the House CR — there are still roadblocks to an
agreement.
Read more...
Archived under:
Budget/Appropriations
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March 2, 2013, 7:00 am
By
Erik Wasson, Jeremy Herb and Keith Laing
Budget experts say the White House will have some flexibility to choose what to cut and what to save.
Read more...
Archived under:
Budget, Aviation, Budget/Appropriations
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March 1, 2013, 12:52 pm
By
Jeremy Herb
The message that sequestration will hurt the military has not been able to stop the across-the-board cuts.
Read more...
Archived under:
Budget/Appropriations
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February 28, 2013, 7:47 pm
By
Jeremy Herb
The Topline: Competing
Democratic and Republican bills to avoid sequestration failed in the Senate
as expected Thursday, and nothing else is in the pipeline to stop the $85 billion in spending cuts, set to go into effect Friday.
The day that so many people said would never come — because
the across-the-board cuts were so terrible that no one would let them happen —
has now arrived.
Read more...
Archived under:
Budget/Appropriations
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February 28, 2013, 4:57 pm
By
Erik Wasson
The White House has issued a new memo guiding agencies on how to
implement the $85 billion in budget cuts.
Read more...
Archived under:
Appropriations, Budget/Appropriations
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