A conference committee of House and Senate members will meet to discuss reconciliation of the chambers’ defense policy bills for the 2017 fiscal year, Defense News reported Wednesday.
Joe Gould writes Senate Armed Services Committee Staff Director Chris Brose and his House Armed Services Committee counterpart Bob Simmons said at an American Enterprise Institute-hosted event Tuesday that both House and Senate versions of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act seek to increase agility, innovation and readiness of the U.S. military.
“The objectives are the same, the intent is the same,†Brose was quoted as saying by Defense News.
A House-approved defense bill would provide $575.7 billion to support Defense Department operations in FY 2017 while the Senate version would allocate a $602 billion budget for DoD.
The report said Defense Ashton Carter and the White House oppose the House’s strategy to shift $18 billion in war funds to the defense base budget and the Senate’s proposal to parcel out the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics between two posts.
Brose indicated that SASC Chairman John McCain (R-Texas) may agree to redirect a portion of the overseas contingency fund in the upcoming conference negotiations on the NDAA, Breaking Defense’s Sydney Freedberg Jr. reported Tuesday.
“The majority of both the House and the Senate, bipartisan, voted that the funding was not adequate,†Simmons told the publication.