Lawmakers in Congress have been arguing over Pentagon spending since the House and Senate advanced competing versions of the annual defense policy bill that differ on everything from spending priorities to closing Guantanamo, according to The Associated Press
Now, the Pentagon faces election-year roadblocks in attempts at cost-saving defense cuts to be passed in Congress as the military moves away from robust wartime budgets, the AP reported.
The House panel that decides defense spending came out with a $570 billion blueprint on Thursday which spares the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, gives military personnel a 1.8 percent pay raise and rebuffs Pentagon efforts to make troops and their families pay slightly more for housing and groceries at on-base commissaries, according to the AP.
The spending bill is similar to the broad defense policy bill the House passed last week which saves ships and aircraft, even though senior military officers did not agree on the reductions, the AP reported.
Chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense Rodney Frelinghuysen said the bill provides the Pentagon and intelligence agencies "with the resources needed to maintain and modernize the best equipped and most capable military in the world today and in the future," according to the AP.
Military leaders argue sparing "parochial programs" will undermine their ability to train soldiers, sailors and airmen to fight, but lawmakers are determined to protect favorite weapons, the AP reported. The bill also bars the transfer to the U.S. of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which President Barack Obama has tried to close since his inauguration more than five years ago.
To pay for the changes, the panel cut the operations and maintenance account by $1.4 billion from the Obama administration's request, according to the AP. The bill covers the core defense budget of $491 billion plus $79.4 billion for conflicts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The subcommittee was expected to approve the bill Friday, the AP reported.
