House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Washington) has called on Congress to approve a defense policy bill that would increase the Pentagon’s base budget without underfunding the overseas war fund, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.

Jacqueline Klimas writes House and Senate lawmakers aim to finalize the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act by Oct. 1 but some analysts believe a funding discrepancy between NDAA drafts from both sides of the aisle and the upcoming presidential election could delay the bill’s passage until later in 2016.

The House proposed to shift $18 billion from the Defense Department‘s overseas contingency operations account to priority military programs.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s version of the NDAA would add $15 billion to DoD’s base budget and offset the spending increase with a series of discretionary program cuts.

Sydney Freedberg Jr. of Breaking Defense reported that Smith recommended cuts to endstrength and nuclear modernization initiatives at DoD to offset higher defense spending.

“It would have been nice if the agreement we reached nine months ago we could’ve just stuck to,” he was quoted as saying by Breaking Defense.

“Honestly I think the most promising one is the Senate Appropriations Committee.”

The U.S. Army has demonstrated a set of power generation systems that work to reduce fuel consumption during an integrated exercise at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

The service branch said Thursday the exercise ran from May through June 17 at Fort Devens’ Base Camp Integration Laboratory as part of the Sustainability Logistics Basing — Science Technology Objective Demonstration that seeks to reduce fuel, water resupply demand and waste generation at small base camps.

“We introduced two new fuel reduction technology demonstrators as well as two returning systems with updated designs based on lessons learned from prior STO Demos and capability upgrades,” said Selma Matthews, SLB-STO-D fuel reduction thrust lead.

The Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command leads the project while the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center manages the initiative that aims to reduce fuel demand by 25 percent.

CERDEC also tested its Energy Informed Operations tactical microgrid which is designed to give power resources access to the grid and support user management through a software applicatio.

The EIO microgrid worked to maintain power for 10 days at the south side of the camp at BCIL as the east side was powered through the Towable 100 kilowatt Generator Set that works to match engine speed with power load to reduce fuel usage, the Army said.

A computer modeling and simulation tool called Auto Distribution Illumination System Electrical worked to support the EIO microgrid and Towable 100 KW GenSet to help users prepare tailored power and heating, ventilation and air conditioning layouts, the Army noted.

CERDEC is scheduled to conclude SLB-STO-D in 2017 and continue to develop the participating fuel reduction technologies.

The Defense Logistics Agency established a “fully operational” insider-threat program five months ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline for all Defense Department components to develop and implement measures against security threats posed by employees.

DLA said Friday it formed an insider threat working group that will meet quarterly to create policy and engage senior leaders as well as an incident response group that comprises  record holders from each DLA subunit.

Jimmy Dyer, insider threat program manager of DLA’s intelligence unit, said a policy was signed in May 2015 to help identify individuals who could compromise the agency’s security through information systems or physical access.

“This policy and our program are geared toward those people who have inherent access to DLA, across the enterprise,” Dyer added.

Renee Roman, DLA chief of staff, formed a charter for an insider-threat working group in 2014 that established standard operating procedures on DLA’s coordinated response to potential risk indicators.

The agency identified 139 indicators such as history of crime or workplace violence, employee access to information system privileges and security clearances.

Dyer noted the initiative also seeks to protect employee privacy and civil liberties as well as promote transparency and trust throughout the organization.

The Defense Department officially sworn in Gen. David Goldfein as the 21st chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force during a ceremony held Friday at the Pentagon.

He is responsible for overseeing the service branch’s efforts to fully train and equip nearly 660,000 active-duty, civilian and reserve personnel, the Air Force said Friday.

Goldfein will also provide advice to the defense secretary, the National Security Council and the U.S. president as a Joint Chiefs of Staff member.

“(This is) my commitment to you — to work every day to give you everything I’ve got, to leave nothing on the table, to remain laser-focused on warfighting excellence, to find the opportunity in every challenge, to treat team building as a contact sport, and to be worthy of this honor,” he said in his pledge to the country’s airmen.

He was nominated by President Obama for the top Air Force uniformed post in April and confirmed by the full Senate June 29.

Goldfein previously served as vice chief of staff at the Air Force from August 2015 to June 2016 after he worked as Joint Staff director at the Pentagon for two years.