The House on Thursday passed a $658 billion, spending cap-busting bill to fund President Trump’s Department of Defense in 2018, as part of a larger bill focused on national security.
The department would get $584 billion for its base operations and another $74 billion for its war fund, called Overseas Contingency Operations. The appropriations bill, passed by a 235-192 vote, also includes a controversial measure supplying $1.6 billion for border fencing and improvements as part of Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S. boundary with Mexico.
U.S. troops “are doing their jobs, we should do our jobs by providing everything they need to complete their mission,” said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
But the legislation violates caps on spending set in federal law and follows moves by the House and Senate Armed Services committees to also propose big boosts in spending despite the looming limits. Without a budget deal to raise the caps, the bills will trigger mandatory across-the-board federal funding cuts called sequestration.
The bill boosts procurement above Trump’s 2018 budget request and funds 11 total Navy ships, including the three littoral combat ships included in the National Defense Authorization Act passed earlier this year, 84 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft, and includes $1 billion to add more troops.
The final bill also included votes and debates over dozens of amendments. A bipartisan group of lawmakers manage to pass an amendment barring the Defense Department from buying any Afghan army uniforms after a department auditor disclosed a criminal investigation this week into previous purchases.
Democrats tried to strip $30 million in funding to create a “test bed” for space-based missile interceptors, similar to the defense system envisioned by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. But Democrats failed, and the proposal by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., remained in the bill.
Democrats had attempted a last-minute maneuver to put an amendment on the floor that would block Trump’s announced ban on transgender military service, but that also failed.
