President Barack Obama on Monday signed the Bipartisan Budget Agreement into law, increasing spending caps for defense and non-defense accounts for the next two years and raising the debt limit just one day before deadline. The agreement “should finally free us from the cycle of shutdown threats and last-minute fixes,” Obama said before signing the bill. However, the defense budget is not yet in the clear. The next hurdle for Congress to clear will be passing an omnibus appropriations bill before the current continuing resolution expires on Dec. 11 to avoid triggering a government shutdown.
For defense, that process entails eliminating about $5 billion from the president’s original $612 billion budget to bring it in line with the $607 billion allotted in the budget deal, reconciling two separate appropriations bills, and moving them through the House and Senate. The chairmen of the congressional appropriations committees, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), have indicated they were ready to begin working on an omnibus bill as soon as Obama signed the deal into law. “We have our eye on the Dec. 11 deadline and it is my goal to complete to complete our appropriations work ahead of that date to avoid any more delays, continuing resolutions or shutdown showdowns that hurt important federal programs,” Rogers said last Wednesday.
Congress can adjust the budget to find some savings in fuel prices, but ultimately there will be some “painful” cuts, said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) during the Defense One 2015 Summit. Thornberry would not preclude the possibility of reductions or delays to weapons programs. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Mac Thornberry’s (R-Texas) plan for cuts bridging the $5 billion shortfall between the two-year budget deal approved by the House last week and the fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill vetoed by President Barack Obama could come as early as Tuesday morning, according to a spokesman. HASC spokesman Claude Chafin said Monday Thornberry would release his proposed cuts as soon as he’s consulted with the Senate and his panel members. Thornberry said one category he could tap for adjustments would be fuel spending as fuel costs continue to be lower than expected.
