WHERE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD: It’s one thing to authorize the Pentagon to spend hundreds of billions for defense in fiscal 2019, but the real action comes when it’s time to cough up the hard cash to fund the priorities outlined in the National Defense Authorization Act. And unlike recent years when the Pentagon was constrained by spending caps imposed because Republicans and Democrats couldn’t compromise on a budget, this time around the spending bill is moving through the Congress on greased skids, thanks to a two-year deal agreed to in February.

SENATE DOES ITS PART: After hours of backroom negotiations and the inevitable last-minute challenge by Sen. Rand Paul, the Senate finally called the roll and passed its fiscal 2019 Pentagon appropriations bill on Thursday afternoon. The $675 billion legislation now heads to a conference committee where the House and Senate will negotiate a final spending plan, which must again pass votes in each chamber and be signed by President Trump. The defense funding was part of a minibus package that included the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. “We would like to go to conference as soon as we can with the House on the bills coupled together,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, the Senate Appropriations chairman. “We need the House to get back here.”