GovernmentExecutive.com

The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday approved a $495.3 billion funding bill that would provide less than President Bush requested but avoided any provisions on the status of U.S. forces in Iraq in an effort to allow congressional approval before the new fiscal year begins.

The bill includes a 3.5 percent pay hike for members of the military. That would afford them the same raise the full House and Senate appropriators have granted civilian federal employees in a separate appropriations bill. The figure is also half a percent higher than President Bush's request for the military and civilians alike.

The National Treasury Employees Union welcomed the subcommittee's action Tuesday as "the latest show of bipartisan congressional support in the House and Senate" for a "fair pay increase" that reflects the contributions of military members and civilians.

The full committee will take up the measure Wednesday. Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said they would oppose any amendments that could jeopardize quick passage of the bill.

That clearly was a reference to any attempt to force a troop withdrawal. Inouye said the committee was expected to take up another supplemental appropriations measure to fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the next few weeks.

"We would urge our colleagues to hold off on supplemental-related issues until that bill is considered," he said. "Our men and women in uniform deserve our support," which can be demonstrated best by completing the Defense appropriations bill "as quickly as possible."

The measure is $3.8 billion below the president's request and $300 million less than what the House passed last month.

But the Senate bill follows similar lines, adding money for military health care, for National Guard equipment and for a higher pay raise than requested.

It also adds money to allow the Navy to start building two Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines a year, as did the House. But it did not support the four other warships the House funded.

The subcommittee's measure cuts a number of the administration's requests, including taking $310 million from national missile defense, which is slightly more than the House cut. Part of the reduction was from the proposed new missile defense sites in Europe, which the House also chopped.