President Donald Trump on Friday signed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that will fund government operations through the end of fiscal 2018 and authorize $654.6 billion for the Defense Department, DoD News reported Friday.Trump signed the measure hours after Congress passed the budget package to avert a government shutdown.
The president said the omnibus bill’s defense budget reflects an increase of at least $60 billion from the fiscal 2017 defense spending.
“Together, we are going to make our military stronger than ever,â€Â Defense Secretary James Mattis, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, said in a news conference Friday at the White House.
Vice President Mike Pence, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and a 2018 Wash100 recipient, were also present at the news conference.
Investor’s Business Daily reported that Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, United Technologies Corp., Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics are among the companies that will stand to benefit from the increase in defense spending under the omnibus measure.
The defense appropriations bill within the package would allocate funds for the procurement of 24 Boeing-built F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft; $2.9 billion for 20 additional Lockheed-made F-35 fighter jets; $178 million for Raytheon-made SM-3 interceptors; and $84 million for six more Northrop-built MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopters.
General Dynamics’ Electric Boat subsidiary and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division are also expected to benefit as the U.S. Navy prepares to receive a $2.6 billion increase in shipbuilding funds for fiscal 2018, the report added.
