The House could take up the defense appropriations bill later this week while operating under a rule allowing debate on only a limited number of amendments.
House members have until Tuesday afternoon to submit proposed amendments to the fiscal year 2014 Pentagon budget legislation, which the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) approved on June 12. Yet the House Rules Committee may require the bill be considered under a rule that restricts the amendments debated by the House to a set number approved by the that panel, Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) says in a “dear colleague” letter to House lawmakers. In recent years the chamber has considered the high-profile defense spending bill via rules that allowed members to submit and debate a multitude of amendments on a wide range of military and foreign-policy related topics.
“While this (limiting of amendments) is not the traditional process for this bill, there are a number of sensitive and ongoing issues related to national security that are more appropriately handled through an orderly amendment process ensuring timely consideration of this important measure,” Sessions says in the June 11 letter.
He is concerned members will submit amendments on varied controversial national-security issues not directly related to the Pentagon budget, and thus delay the defense appropriations measure’s passage.
“House Republicans remain committed to a process that allows the House and its members to debate the important issues of the day,” Sessions writes. “I believe that this process will allow us to meet the needs of our men and women in uniform and the people we represent.”
The House Rules Committee has scheduled a Wednesday afternoon hearing for the defense bill, which must be held before the legislation reaches the floor. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) weekly schedule lists the Pentagon legislation as something that could possibly be considered on Thursday.
The HAC-approved bill would set the Pentagon’s base budget at $512.5 billion for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
It calls for trimming $3.4 billion from the Pentagon’s spending proposal, and likely faces White House opposition because it adheres to House Republican budget plans that President Barack Obama rejects.
Both the HAC bill and the Pentagon budget proposal do not reflect the $500 billion in decade-long sequestration cuts that started in March. Instead, they adhere to different, partisan plans for trimming the federal budget in other ways that lessen the blow to the Pentagon.
The HAC measure takes aim at some of the Pentagon’s largest programs, including Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] F-35 program. Overall, the bill would cut the Pentagon’s request for research and development by $1.1 billion and weapons procurement by $750 million (Defense Daily, June 13).