The House Appropriations Committee has passed a defense policy bill that would allocate $28.6 billion for the National Defense Restoration Fund for fiscal 2018, Breaking Defense reported Friday.The proposed fund comprises 4.3 percent of the measure’s $658.1 billion defense budget and would be managed by the Defense Department secretary.
The House panel’s bill would authorize the DoD secretary to spend the restoration fund across seven various accounts in both overseas contingency operations and base budgets as well as inform Congress 15 days prior to allocating funds to a particular program.
The proposed fund includes $18.6 billion for the acquisition of aircraft, ships, vehicles, missile defense platforms and munitions, $7 billion for readiness efforts, $2 billion for research and development initiatives and $1 billion for service personnel.
Kay Granger (R-Texas), chair of the House committee’s defense subpanel, said the Joint Staff and Defense Secretary James Mattis are expected to present a new defense strategic review in September.
“The Defense Restoration Fund will enable the secretary to make necessary investments resulting from that review now, instead of having to wait until 2019,†Granger added.
