Senate Republicans may delay until May the Trump administration’s requested $30 billion supplemental boost in defense spending while Congress works to keep the government funded through the fall, according to a top lawmaker.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told the Washington Examiner that the additional fiscal 2017 funding for Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets as well as ships, missiles and troops should not be considered while lawmakers wrangle over passing 2017 appropriations bills or an omnibus budget before current federal spending authority expires April 28.
The supplemental request may be a heavy political lift either way — it faces opposition from Democrats because it cuts domestic programs and could break federal spending caps — and a reluctance by Republicans to take it on now could push consideration into May or later.
“I think that the best way to get [fiscal year 2017] done is to do FY17, which includes defense … and then deal with the supplemental as a separate issue,” said Blunt, who sits among Republican leadership and is a member of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.
A $578 billion defense appropriations bill passed the House this month and could soon be taken up by the Senate. It would keep the Defense Department funded through September.
The $30 billion supplemental request would provide an additional $25 billion for baseline spending and about $5 billion for the overseas war budget, which includes the fight against the Islamic State.
The money would buy two dozen F/A-18 Super Hornets. The Navy and Marine Corps told the House Tuesday they may now have a shortfall of 100 aircraft and that about half of the two fleets are not ready to fly due to aging and a lack of spare parts.
Nearly $14 billion of the request would go to modernizing aircraft, ships and missiles, according to Reuters.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., also a member of the appropriations subcommittee, said he believes the chamber should “deal with regular order first” before taking up the supplemental request, but said the scheduling decision will ultimately be made by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
“I don’t see [the supplemental] at the moment being done by April but things change around this place,” Shelby said.
Democrats blasted the request during a hearing of the defense appropriations subcommittee this month, especially for a provision calling for $18 billion in domestic program cuts to offset the new spending.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee, said Wednesday he still has concerns about the request and is uncertain about its future in the Senate following Blunt’s comments about a possible delay.
“I’ve heard so many variations on that theme from my Republican colleagues,” Durbin said. “The supplemental of course not only increases money for the military, it makes substantial cuts in non-defense programs like medical research, so it’s not without controversy.”
