Senate plan on defense funding sets up showdown with House

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday that the Senate’s version of the annual defense policy bill does not use any war funds to authorize base budgetary needs, setting up a major conflict with the House that will have to be settled before the bill goes to the White House.

The Senate bill meets President Obama’s fiscal year 2017 request, but the House Armed Services Committee authorized about $18 billion of the overseas contingency operations fund for base requirements that it said were priorities the president didn’t address in his request.