The U.S. House passed a $601 billion defense authorization bill Thursday that rejects Pentagon plans to retire Cold War-era planes and rebuffs efforts to find savings in cutting military benefits and closing bases.
By a vote of 325-98, lawmakers took the first step toward setting defense policy and spending for the fiscal year that begins Oct.1.
For Arkansas, U.S. Reps. Tom Cotton, Rick Crawford, Tim Griffin and Steve Womack — all Republicans — all voted for the bill.
Hours later, the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee announced the completion of its version of the bill that backs several of the Pentagon proposals while breaking with the administration on some weapons.
Most notably, the Senate panel “created a path to close Guantanamo,” said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a long-sought goal of President Barack Obama. Under a provision of the bill, the administration would have to produce a comprehensive plan for transferring terror suspects from the U.S. naval facility in Cuba that would be subject to a congressional vote.
The Senate panel backed the administration on some personnel benefits and a 1 percent pay raise for the military, while breaking with the administration by sparing the A-10 Warthog close-support plane and an aircraft carrier.
The Senate panel’s version also included a provision that would authorize the military to train and equip vetted Syrian rebels battling forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
The House legislation “guards against achieving false short-term savings at the expense of vital long-term strategic capabilities,” Republican Rep. Howard McKeon of California, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said during floor debate this week.
The White House has threatened a possible veto because the measure would impede the Defense Department’s cost-cutting proposals and prevent the closing of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee didn’t get enough votes Thursday to pass his amendment that offered a framework for closing Guantanamo Bay by Dec. 31, 2016.
Instead, the bill includes an amendment by Florida Republican Dennis Ross that would prohibit any money from being spent for building or modernizing recreational facilities at Guantanamo.
The House-passed measure would save the A-10, a 1970s-era combat plane known as the Warthog, from Pentagon plans for elimination for at least a year. The Air Force had projected savings of $4.2 billion over five years from retiring all 238 A-10s.
The bill also would bar the military from doing anything to prepare for retirement of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s U-2 spy plane, as the Pentagon intends to do in 2016. The legislation would ask the Defense Department to report to Congress by Feb. 16 on ways to mitigate decreased capabilities for high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance resulting from the U-2’s elimination.
The legislation would authorize $496 billion in discretionary Defense Department spending in fiscal 2015 plus $79.4 billion for war operations.
In addition, the measure would authorize $7.9 billion in mandatory spending and $17.9 billion for national security programs under the Energy Department.
As a step to ensure that the Navy keeps a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers, the bill would allot $483.6 million for the refueling and overhaul of CVN 73, the USS George Washington aircraft carrier for which the Pentagon requested no money.
The Defense Department has said it may have to call off the Washington’s refurbishing if the budget-cutting process known as sequestration returns in full in fiscal 2016.
The bill also would bar the Pentagon from mothballing the Navy’s guided-missile cruisers and amphibious landing dock ships.
The Navy wants to sideline 11 Ticonderoga-class cruisers, at a projected savings of about $4 billion over five years, with plans to upgrade the ships in the future.
Further complicating the Pentagon’s cost-savings plans, the bill would reject proposals to have military members pay more in out-of-pocket costs for off-base housing and to increase health-care expenses for military families and retirees. It also would prohibit another round of domestic base closings.
The House measure would halt an Army plan to transfer Apache attack helicopters from the National Guard to the regular Army. The Army projects it would save about $12 billion by shifting about 100 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to the Guard and using the Apaches to replace OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters for Army combat missions.
Information for this article was contributed by Roxana Tiron of Bloomberg News and by Donna Cassata of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/23/2014