WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee today published its initial draft of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2024 spending bill, providing an $886 billion topline for the national security spending and $826 billion specifically for the Defense Department.
Those numbers adhere to the cap figures agreed to by White House and congressional leaders late last month as part of the debt ceiling deal. The $826 billion topline for the Pentagon is $285 million more than the White House requested and about 3.6% more than last year’s enacted budget, according to a committee statement. (When factoring in military construction, which is broken out differently by the HAC than the House Armed Services Committee, DoD spending roughly matches the same $842.3 billion as the HASC.)
The committee is set to mark up the legislation tomorrow in closed session, meaning its provisions and funding levels could still change. The draft text’s unveiling follows the FY24 defense policy bill, which the House Armed Services Committee, also referred to as the “authorizers,” is in the process of marking up this week and next.
Although the legislative process requires congressional authorizers to include specific funding levels, federal agencies only receive money based on the numbers included in the appropriations bills. (The Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee have not yet released drafts of their respective annual legislation.) In other words, when there’s a difference in funding levels between authorizers and appropriators, the Pentagon will usually receive the amount of funding green-lit by the latter, although such fights are often worked out in conference.
And there are differences, even with the basic level of information released by the HAC.
For example, the House Armed Services Committee would authorize R&D funds to the tune of $15.77 billion for the Army, $26.05 billion for the Navy and Marines, $46.53 billion for the Air Force and $19.56 billion for the Space Force. House defense appropriators, however, would provide $16.76 billion for the Army, $27.69 billion for the Navy and Marines, $46.48 billion for the Air Force and $18.84 billion for the Space Force, according to the text of each committee’s legislation.
On Navy shipbuilding, House appropriators are poised to largely fulfill the service’s budget request as submitted, providing the necessary funds for a Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, two Virginia-class fast attack subs, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, two Constellation-class frigates, one John Lewis-class fleet oiler and one new submarine tender.
However, where appropriators sharply differ with their authorizer counterparts is funding for a new San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. Authorizers recommended funding to begin purchasing the $1.7 billion warship — which the Navy did not request, but was included on the Marine Corps’ unfunded priority list — while appropriators did not include any funding for the amphib.
House authorizers are also seeking to prevent the Navy from retiring three amphibious ships and two cruisers. Meanwhile, the appropriations committee’s bill will block the Navy from retiring any of the Littoral Combat Ships as well as the amphibious dock landing ships Germantown (LSD-42) and Tortuga (LSD-46).
But there is agreement between the two House committees on other key issues, such as the pending site selection for the headquarters of US Space Command. Frustrated that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has still not announced the location for the SPACECOM headquarters, House authorizers would block funds for facility modification or construction for SPACECOM until Kendall confirms its permanent home, a measure appropriators would also enforce.
In a committee statement published alongside the bill, lawmakers said it prioritizes “funding to counter China” by supporting security cooperation programs with Taiwan as well as “prioritizing” the delivery of defense articles to that island nation.
Elsewhere in the draft legislation, there are a number of conservative riders that are likely to become friction points when the GOP-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate must eventually meet to iron out their legislation’s respective differences.
Lawmakers included provisions prohibiting any of the funding from being used “to promote or advance Critical Race Theory,” perform medical procedures that “attempt to change an individual’s biological gender” as well as administering White House executive orders related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The bill would also ban the funding of travel or leave expenses to obtain an abortion, a DoD policy that has led Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville to place a blanket hold on confirmations of military officials.
The full committee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in a statement today derided those provisions and others as “partisan riders that have nothing to do with national security.”