On July 17, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved, by voice vote, the FY2015 Defense spending bill (H.R. 4870). The Subcommittee on Defense approved the legislation on July 15.
According to the committee report, the bill would provide $542.772 billion in discretionary funding for programs at the Department of Defense. This amount is $22.322 billion less than FY2014 and $1.35 billion below President Obama’s FY 2015 request.
The chart below details funding levels for programs important to women and their families.
| Program/Agency | FY2014 | President’s FY2015 Request | House FY2015 | Senate FY2015 |
| Military Personnel | $128.796 billion | $128.958 billion | $128.128 billion | $128.431 billion |
| Defense Health Program | $32.699 billion | $31.995 billion | $31.635 billion | $31.571 billion |
The committee expressed concern regarding the increased incidence of sexual assault in the military. The bill would provide an additional $25 million for the continuation and expansion of the Special Victims’ Counsel Program to provide legal assistance and support to victims of sexual assault (p. 8-9).
The legislation would allocate $120 million for the peer-reviewed breast cancer research program and $10 million for the peer-reviewed ovarian cancer research program (p. 253).
The bill would provide $25 million for the recruitment and retention of women in the Afghan security forces, including training for female recruits and gender awareness training for their male counterparts (p. 289).
