On June 2, the House Appropriations Committee approved, by voice vote, the FY2016 Defense spending bill (H.R. 2685). The Defense Subcommittee approved the measure on May 20 (see The Source, 5/20/15).
According to the committee report, the bill would allocate $579.17 billion in mandatory and discretionary funds in FY2016. This amount is $21.803 billion over FY2015 and $778.387 million over President Obama’s FY2016 budget request.
Expressing its ongoing concern about the “pervasive problem of sexual assault in the military,” the committee would require the director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office to brief Congress on its efforts to reform how the military adjudicates sexual assault cases and address perceived retaliation against victims who reported an incident of sexual assault. In addition, the measure would fully fund the president’s request of $283.325 million for sexual assault prevention and response programs (p. 14).
The legislation would provide $252 million for cancer research, which includes breast and ovarian cancer research funding, at $120 million and $20 million, respectively (p. 276). An additional $8 million would go towards global HIV/AIDS prevention educational activities (p. 334).
| Program/Agency | FY2015 | President’s FY2016 Request | FY2016 |
| Military Personnel | $128.004 billion | $130.491 billion | $122.728 billion |
| Defense Health Program | $32.07 billion | $32.243 billion | $31.43 billion |
