Highlights of Senate Armed Services Committee Action on the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Authorization Bill
The bill includes $422.2 billion for the Department of Defense and the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy, $20.9 billion above the current amount – a real increase of 3.4 percent. The bill does NOT include the Administration’s recent request of $25 billion for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
FUNDING PROVISIONS
Total Funding
- Request: $420.7 billion
- Committee: $422.2 billion
NOTE: This may be a difference in scoring, rather than an actual increase.
Personnel
- Request: $104.8 billion
- Committee: N/A
Procurement
- Request: $74.9 billion
- Committee: $76.5 billion (Committee claims a $1.8 billion increase)
Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation
- Request: $68.9 billion
- Committee: $68.6 billion (Committee claims a $0.8 billion increase)
Operations & Maintenance
- Request: $140.6 billion
- Committee: N/A
Military Construction
- Request: $9.5 billion
- Committee: $9.8 billion
MAJOR WEAPONS SYSTEMS
Ballistic Missile Defense
- Request: $10.2 billion
- Committee: $10.2 billion
Tactical Aircraft
F/A-22 “Raptor” Fighter
- Request: $3.6 billion procurement for 24 aircraft ($4.7 billion total)
- Committee: $3.4 billion for procurement of 22 aircraft (Committee claims a funding reduction of $280 million)
Joint Strike Fighter
- Request: $4.6 billion
- Committee: $4.6 billion
F/A-18E/F “Super Hornet” Fighter
- Request: $2.9 billion for 42 aircraft ($3.1 billion total)
- Committee: $2.9 billion for 42 aircraft
Shipbuilding
DD Destroyer
- Request: $1.5 billion
- Committee: $1.5 billion
Other Shipbuilding
- Request: The DoD proposed budget includes requests for 3 DDG-51 “Arleigh Burke” destroyers ($3.4 billion), 1 “Virginia” attack submarine ($1.6 billion), 1 LPD-17 “San Antonio” amphibious assault ship ($967 million) and 2 T-AKE cargo/ammunition ships. Total funding — $6.7 billion
- Committee: Includes a total of $6.7 billion for funding of these seven ships.
ARMY PROGRAMS
Comanche Helicopter
- Request: $1.2 billion (the Army has since terminated the Comanche program)
- Committee: Reallocates Comanche funds as follows – $464 million for 32 Black Hawk helicopters, $727 million for the Chinook helicopter program, $674 million for upgrades on Apache helicopters, $272 million for aircraft survivability equipment, and $131 million for the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program.
Stryker Interim Armored Vehicle (IAV)
- Request: $957 million for 310 vehicles
- Committee $905 million for 310 vehicles
Future Combat Systems
- Request: $3.2 billion
- Committee: $3.2 billion
NON-PROLIFERATION PROGRAMS
Dept. of Energy nonproliferation programs
- Request: $1.35 billion
- Committee: 1.3 billion (due to rounding, its not clear if the request is fully funded)
NOTE: The committee removes the $50 million limitation on DOE authority to spend funds on projects outside the former Soviet Union.
DoD Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (“Nunn-Lugar”)
- Request: $409 million
- Committee: $409 million The committee grants the President permanent authority to waive annually the conditions that must be met before continuing spending on Russian chemical weapons destruction.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
- Adds $925 million for additional up-armored HMMWVs and add-on ballistic protection for force protection for personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan (total of $1,054 million)
- Authorizes a 3.5 percent across-the-board pay raise for military personnel
- Would permanently increase the special pay rate for troops subject to hostile fire or imminent danger from $150 per month to $225 per month
- Adds $603 million for force protection gear and combat clothing for service members
- Adds $47 million for an additional seven Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams, for a total of 55 teams by the end of FY’05
- Increases Army active duty end strength by up to 30,000 soldiers from 2005 through 2009
- Raises the troop cap on U.S. forces in Colombia from 400 to 800 military personnel and from 400 to 600 contractor personnel
Sources: Defense Department’s Fiscal Year 2005 budget request, Senate Armed Services Committee press release (May 7, 2004).