Conferees finish $418 billion Defense appropriations bill
Conference report is $1.6 billion below President Bush's budget request.
Conferees to the fiscal 2005 Defense appropriations bill approved a conference report Wednesday that includes $416.2 billion in Pentagon funding and $1.3 billion in miscellaneous add-ons.
The conference report, $1.6 billion below President Bush's budget request, probably will be on the floor of both chambers this week and be sent to the president for his signature by this weekend. Details of the report were not disclosed until Wednesday. It includes $25 billion in emergency funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report also shows that conferees approved termination of the Army's Comanche helicopter, with the money going to other Army aviation programs. They also provided $63.6 million for Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopters and $143 million for 8 CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Conferees added $16 million for two UC-35 airlift aircraft and an estimated $106 million for two C-37s, one aircraft above the budget request.
The bill provides $3.6 billion for 24 F/A-22 fighters and $2.7 billion for 15 C-17 aircraft, an increase of $158 million and one aircraft above the president's request. The conferees added $100 million for a generic "Tanker Replacement Transfer Fund." House appropriators had designated that funding for the acquisition of Boeing KC-767 tankers.
The conference report adds $30 million for three additional Predator unmanned aerial vehicles, an amount that is $10 million and one plane below what House appropriators recommended. The conference report also adds $60 million for the continued development of the B-2 and a next-generation bomber program and includes $586.5 million for the Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System program.
Conferees provided $1.4 billion for the Navy's DD(X) destroyer, including $221 million for advance procurement of the first DD(X) ship. House appropriators had proposed to eliminate this funding in their version of the bill.
The report also adds $84.4 million for advance procurement of a second DD(X). The report includes $457.1 million for the Littoral Combat Ship, an increase of $105 million over the budget request to fully fund construction of the first vessel, although conferees cut $220 million from the Navy's VXX presidential helicopter because of program schedule delays.
The conference report funds $2.9 billion for the Army's Future Combat System, $268 million below the president's request, though it fully funds the program's Non Line-of-Sight Cannon, directs its fielding by not later than 2010, and establishes a new funding line for the program with $58 million. Conferees approved $10 billion for missile defense programs, $183 million below the president's request, including $4.6 billion for ground-based midcourse missile defense needed to field initial operational capability in the fall of 2004. Funding for the Air Force's Space-Based Radar program was cut to $75 million, with direction to restructure the program.