President Barack Obama late last week signed two key pieces of legislation that detail the Defense Department’s budget for fiscal year 2014 and the federal government’s budget for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, according to Reuters.
Ros Krasny writes the signed defense authorization bill gives the Pentagon $526.8 billion in fiscal 2014, but the two-year budget compromise reached by congressional budget committee chairs Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan allocates $498 million in Pentagon spending.
A final defense budget number will need to be reconciled early in the new year, Krasny reports.
Under the government-wide budget deal, spending will increase by $63 billion over sequester levels in fiscal years 2014 through 2015, Reuters reports.
A Bloomberg report published Dec. 19 says this is the first bipartisan budget Congress has produced in 27 years and halves the amount of sequestration cuts planned for fiscal years 2014 and 2015.
Heidi Przybyla and Kathleen Hunter write the next item on Congress’ to-do list on fiscal matters is to address the country’s borrowing authority, which is set to expire sometime in February.
Fiscal 2014 discretionary spending is set at $1.01 trillion and the budget deficit is estimated to go down by $23 billion over 10 years, according to the report by Przybyla and Hunter.
