Senate panel plans June markup of Defense authorization bill

A senior Senate Armed Services Committee aide said Wednesday that the panel plans to mark up the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill by July 1, revising comments made this week by Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.

The hope, according to the aide, is to send the authorization measure to the Senate floor before the August recess.

The House Armed Services Committee plans to begin subcommittee markups of the authorization bill next week. The committee set June 16 to take up the bill, making it a likely candidate for floor consideration before the July 4 recess.