Defense
Congress might not clear defense spending, policy bills until December
The defense spending and authorization bills for fiscal 2022 might not clear Congress until December thanks to the White House’s late budget submission, increasing the likelihood of yet another continuing resolution.
Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters July 15 that the committee’s bill, which is being marked up next week, “will be voted on and out of committee before the August break, but I don’t know if we’ll have a vote on the [National Defense Authorization Act] before the August break.”
Gillibrand said the NDAA vote may have to be pushed to the fall. The House Armed Services Committee plans to do a full committee markup of its version of the bill Sept. 1.
“So we won’t have a House and Senate version at least until probably October,” Gillibrand said, adding that the timeline could move faster but likely not by much. “And then appropriations always have their own timeline. So, all tied up? December.”
The timeline crunch is due to the White House not submitting a budget until late May, which lawmakers worried would delay the legislative processes around getting the defense spending and necessary authorization bills passed in time to avoid a continuing resolution.
The Biden administration’s first budget, totaling $6 trillion, has been derided by Republicans for a proposed flat defense budget at $715 billion in discretionary spending, and praised by others for ..
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