House defense appropriators fatten National Guard coffers
Subcommittee cuts Army's Future Combat Systems, an ambitious program valued at between $160 billion and $200 billion.
The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday marked up a $427.4 billion defense spending bill that includes a $50 billion bridge fund to pay for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the first several months of fiscal 2007.
Many details of the closed-door markup are being kept private until the full committee takes up the bill, likely next Tuesday. But Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young, R-Fla., said Tuesday night that the committee's work will mirror much of what is in the $512.9 billion fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill, passed by the House last month. "We always try to follow [House Armed Services] as closely as we can," Young said.
Some details that did emerge after the meeting include the panel's decision to boost Army National Guard personnel accounts by $471 million to pay for the force's total authorized end strength of 350,000 soldiers, according to a source tracking the mark. In its fiscal 2007 request sent to Capitol Hill in February, the Pentagon asked for funds to pay for only 333,000 troops -- the actual number of soldiers in the force at the time, but 17,000 below the current authorized level.
Faced with strong congressional opposition, the Defense Department ultimately reversed its decision and requested money to maintain a force at full strength.
In another nod to the heavily deployed Guard, the panel boosted equipment accounts by $500 million. The House Armed Services Committee had authorized a $318 million increase in Guard equipment coffers, largely to pay to equip the additional 17,000 soldiers.
Additionally, the appropriations panel included language that will require the Defense Department to review its proposed changes to the mix of Army National Guard brigades. The Pentagon has proposed reducing the number of Guard combat brigades from 34 to 28 and replacing the six units with combat support brigades that are better equipped to respond to domestic disasters, the source said.
Meanwhile, the subcommittee made deep cuts in the Army's Future Combat Systems, an ambitious program valued at between $160 billion and $200 billion, which is at the center of the service's technology transformation efforts. The cuts, according to aides, roughly match the Armed Services Committee's decision to trim $326 million from the administration's fiscal 2007 request of $3.9 billion for the program.
Senate appropriators have not marked up their version of the fiscal 2007 defense spending bill. Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, signaled Tuesday that it is "entirely possible" that election-year pressures could push final approval of his bill until after the November elections.