Don’t expect Congress to finalize the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill before the election, according to Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.
Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee met Monday night to hash out differences between the House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act. Lawmakers will need to reach a compromise on a number of issues, including whether women should have to sign up for the draft and how the Pentagon’s acquisition system needs to change.
The biggest difference, however, is a House plan to move $18 billion from the overseas warfighting account to the base budget, leaving the account out of money by next spring, forcing the next Congress and president to pass a supplemental funding bill.
Because of the “many issues” that have yet to be resolved, Cardin told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday that he doesn’t believe the National Defense Authorization Act can be finished before the lame duck session of Congress.
“It did not appear likely that they’ll be able to resolve that and the Republicans are very anxious to get out of here. I would be happy to stay here as long as we can to work out the NDAA, work out a longer-term budget deal,” Cardin said. “I just don’t think it’s likely that that bill will make it to the finish line.”
The delay in reconciling the NDAA is holding up other pieces of legislation, including the fiscal 2017 spending bill for the State Department, Cardin said.
“There’s been lots of conversations, but at this point the NDAA bill, which is the vehicle, is not moving so discussions in regards to State Department authorization and some of the other issues have been backed up,” he said.
