House to consider increased DOD funding next week

The House next week is expected to begin work on a Department of Defense spending bill that would increase spending in several key areas, despite the broad Republican call to cut spending.

The bill, H.R. 2219, would set a base DOD budget of $530 billion, $17 billion more than fiscal 2011 but still about $9 billion less than the Obama administration requested.

The bill also includes $118.7 billion for overseas contingency operations. That's a drop of about $39 billion from fiscal 2011, a reflection of an anticipated troop drawdown in Iraq.

Under the bill, funding for military personnel would increase $5.4 billion, to $132.1 billion. The operation and maintenance budget would increase $4.4 billion, to $170 billion.

The procurement budget would rise $5 billion from current levels, to $107.6 billion. The research budget would fall slightly, to $73 billion.

In report language accompanying the bill, House Appropriations Committee ranking member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) said growing budget pressures will at some point require consideration of a significant pullback of U.S. military forces abroad.

"As we look ahead at the very real budgetary pressures confronting the nation in coming years and the near term, it seems inevitable to me that Congress must review more critically the continuing deployment of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and attendant military activities in Pakistan," Dicks wrote. "I believe we must reassess the extent of U.S. military involvement, and the objectives of U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, questioning whether U.S. national security requires a continued deployment of over 100,000 U.S. service personnel."