WASHINGTON — The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee approved $658.1 billion in 2018 defense spending on Thursday.
The measure, headed to the House floor, includes $584.2 billion in base funding and $73.9 billion in budget cap-exempt wartime funding. The committee's overall funding level, as proposed, would be $68.1 billion above the current fiscal year.
The bill includes a surprise amendment that would repeal the 2001 authorization of the use of military force that's been used to cover wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — and the more recent war against the Islamic State. The language received almost immediate pushback, and it's not immediately clear what impact it will have on the host funding bill.
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The House appropriations bill busts statutory budget caps set at $549 billion under the Budget Control Act. Pro-defense lawmakers are banking on a larger deal to ease or repeal those caps.
The measure was one of several fiscal 2018 defense proposals to emerge from Capitol Hill, all of which exceed budget caps.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen said the legislation reflects military leaders' requests for more weapons and troops.
"It’s time to rebuild our military and focus on keeping our nation safe," he said. "This bill will provide troops and the commanders with the resources they need to do their jobs and provide stability around the world."
The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee’s top Democrat, Rep. Pete Visclosky of Indiana, said he was not confident the bill would be enacted by the start of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, because it exceeds BCA caps for defense by $70 billion and falls under the caps for nondefense by $5 billion.
Visclosky, pointing to the bipartisan, bicameral compromise budget deals that reach rough parity between defense and nondefense, said the House budget resolution under debate — which funds the nondefense side of the budget at $511 billion — would be a recipe for "shutdown brinksmanship, possible increase to the BCA caps and then maybe an omnibus."
"That is the very outcome the secretary of defense and the people of this committee don't want to happen," Visclosky said. "We need a consensus to enable us to break free of thus cycle of uncertainty."
Email: jgould@defensenews.com
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Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
