House Republicans Near Deal to Significantly Boost Defense Spending
June 26 2017 - 5:38PM
Dow Jones News
By Kristina Peterson and Richard Rubin
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are nearing a deal on overall
spending levels for fiscal year 2018 that would boost military
spending well above the limit imposed by current law.
For the fiscal year that begins in October, House Republicans
are coalescing around setting base military spending at $621.5
billion, surpassing the $549 billion limit under current law, in a
budget resolution that could be released and adopted by the House
Budget Committee later this week, according to House GOP aides.
House Republicans are likely to set nonmilitary spending at $511
billion, which is below the limit of $516 billion under current
law.
"This is so important for our country," House Budget Committee
Chairwoman Diane Black (R., Tenn.,) said last week. "We've got to
make sure that we have a fiscally sound country moving forward and
at the same time, strengthening our military and getting to where
we can do tax reform."
The budget resolution, a largely symbolic document, carries
unusual importance this year, because Republicans plan to use it to
help pass an overhaul of the tax code without Democratic support.
The budget resolution will lay out the measuring sticks and revenue
targets for the tax plan, which top Republicans are trying to write
now. If the House and Senate both adopt the same budget, that
unlocks the so-called reconciliation procedures that can allow a
subsequent tax bill to pass on a party-line vote.
While the spending levels House Republicans are mapping out are
likely to change during the course of negotiations over the summer
and early fall, other directions included in the budget resolution
could eventually become law. Although the budget can get adopted on
a party-line basis, actual spending bills will require Democratic
support.
For instance, Republicans are planning to include instructions
to shave off at least $200 billion over a decade from mandatory
spending, the money the federal government automatically spends for
the major safety-net programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and food
stamps.
Legislation tied to the budget process can pass both chambers of
Congress under a special process known as reconciliation. That
enables certain measures to pass with just a simple majority in the
Senate, where 60 votes are usually needed to clear procedural
hurdles. Republicans hold 52 of the Senate's 100 seats.
The spending levels close to finalization in the House would be
used for two things: the budget resolution that maps out the GOP's
fiscal plan for the next decade and the establishment of the amount
of money to be divvied up in detailed spending bills, which provide
the money to run government agencies in fiscal year 2018. Congress
must pass those spending bills, in some form, before current
funding expires on Oct. 1. Unlike the budget resolution, which
doesn't require a presidential signature, spending bills go to the
White House and need 60 votes in the Senate. As a result,
Democrats' support will be needed to pass spending legislation.
It would take a bipartisan agreement to alter the spending
limits established in 2011 as part of a deal to raise the debt
limit. Negotiations between leaders of both parties are expected to
ramp up later this summer.
House Republicans have acknowledged that the spending levels
they set in the House GOP budget are unlikely to represent the
final outcome. Democrats are willing to boost military spending,
but only if matched by an increase in nonmilitary spending.
"We must provide equal relief for both defense and non-defense
programs that power our local economies," Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top
Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sens. Dick
Durbin of Illinois, Patty Murray of Washington and Debbie Stabenow
of Michigan, all members of Democratic leadership, wrote to Senate
GOP leaders in a letter Monday. The Democrats also objected to
funding Mr. Trump's proposed wall along the border with Mexico.
Many Republicans said last week they wanted to crystallize their
priorities, including boosts to military spending and trims
elsewhere in the budget, ahead of bipartisan negotiations with
Democrats later this year. Others said they would rather begin the
talks with Democrats sooner than later.
"We will once again spend a lot of time and energy on the first
launch knowing damn well that the final bill will be at a number
higher than what we're discussing here today" on nondefense
spending, said Rep. Charlie Dent (R., Pa.), a key centrist who has
been urging GOP leaders to begin discussions with Democrats. "There
will be a negotiation. It's just a matter of when," he said.
"Everybody knows it."
Defense hawks had hoped to include even more military spending,
around $640 billion, so the $621.5 billion marks something of a
compromise with those concerned about the impact on the federal
budget deficit. In his budget released earlier this year, President
Donald Trump proposed setting military spending at $603 billion
plus an additional $65 billion in defense emergency war spending,
which isn't subject to the caps established in the 2011 deal.
House Republicans are expected to boost defense emergency war
spending by $75 billion, according to House GOP aides.
"There is a clear realization we have been neglecting defense,"
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.), a member of the House Budget
Committee, said Friday.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and
Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 26, 2017 17:23 ET (21:23 GMT)
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