Budget/Appropriations

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) plans to take the top Democratic spot on the Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee in the Armed Services Committee, a congressional source told The Hill.

Sanchez would move from her current position as ranking member on Strategic Forces to the Armed Services panel’s largest subcommittee, which deals with major weapons systems like the F-35 fighter.

A congressional source with knowledge of Sanchez’s thinking told The Hill that she has made the decision to move to the new panel after weighing the possibility for several weeks.

Lawmakers have yet to negotiate how to avoid the massive, automatic defense budget cuts under the administration's sequestration plan.

Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, despite expressing disagreement with portions of the bill.

The agreement fails to solve business-killing uncertainty caused by possible cuts, the industry says.

The defense Secretary urged Congress to eliminate the threat of sequestration by passing balanced deficit reduction.

Pentagon and White House budget officials are busily reworking the department's budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year after Congress passed a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff."

The “fiscal cliff” deal that raised taxes and delayed across-the-board spending cuts also resolved a minor issue that has been holding up the defense authorization bill.

The fiscal cliff legislation included a provision tweaking language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed last month that requires the president to notify Congress if there’s a reduction in the number of strategic delivery systems.

The fiscal cliff legislation edits the NDAA text to say that the president shall certify to defense committees “‘whether 'the Russian Federation' is in compliance with its ‘strategic’ arms control obligations with the United States."

The changes in the language replaced “that” with “whether” and added “strategic” to Russia’s arms control obligations.

The Florida lawmaker is one of only two House Republicans—including Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)—to receive a term-limits waiver. 

The bill from House Appropriations ranking member Norm Dicks would shift the $109 billion in spending cuts to 2014 and beyond.

The Pentagon is pretending the threat of the “fiscal cliff” doesn’t exist when it comes to the Defense Department’s 2014 budget.