On May 11, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense approved the FY2017 Defense spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered).
According to the committee summary, the bill would allocate $517.1 billion in discretionary funds for the base Department of Defense (DoD) budget in FY2017. This amount is $3 billion over FY2016 and $587 million under President Obama’s FY2017 budget request. The amount complies with the spending limits established for FY2017 by the Bipartisan Budget Act (P.L. 114-74).
In addition, the bill would provide $58.6 billion in overseas contingency operations funding. Of that amount, the bill permits $15.7 billion to be targeted toward the base DoD budget.
Among other provisions, the bill includes $132.6 billion for military personnel. This amount is $1.5 billion over the administration’s request and $1.1 billion over FY2016.
The measure also would allocate $34 billion for the Defense Health and military families programs, an increase of $1.7 billion over FY2016 and $559 million over the president’s request. The bill also includes $282 million for cancer research, including breast and ovarian cancer research, as well as $296 million for sexual assault prevention and response.
Finally, the legislation would authorize funding to protect service members, DoD civilian personnel, and their families from the Zika virus.
Additional details will be made available once the committee releases its report.
