The Senate is eying a $1 trillion spending package to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. But the bill would shave about $10 billion off the Pentagonâs bottom line for the current fiscal year, according to a report on DoDBuzz.
The stopgap spending bill passed by the House last week contained nearly $671 billion for defense, but would have trimmed $19 billion from the budget.
Now, DoDBuzz reports, the Senate is âscrambling to put together an omnibus spending package,â by the end of the week.
Notably, the bill would give Defense Department officials what is known as âgeneral transfer authority,â or the ability to shift funding around from bottom-line numbers granted by Congress. That provision is an echo of similar measures passed by the House last week and is generally seen as helping to offset the sting of budget cuts.
A Pentagon spokeswoman told DoDBuzz continuing resolutions often donât provide enough flexibility for funding war-time expenditures. However, the Houseâs inclusion of general transfer authority made it âappear that the House of Representatives wants to provide some flexibility to the department to help meet some of those needs,â she added.
The Senateâs proposed Pentagon budget breakdown:
Personnel – $126.4 billion
Operations and maintenance – $165.8 billion
Procurement – $102.7 billion
Research and development – $77.6 billion
Management (and revolving) funds – $2.5 billion
Funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – $157.7 billion
Other DoD costs – $34.4 billion
For a complete breakdown on the state of funding and what it means for DoD, check out DoDBuzzâs ongoing coverage of the continuing resolutions.