As the House Armed Services Committee readies its fiscal 2016 defense bill for passage next week, here are some of the elements to look for in the final bill:
Bases and personnel issues
No base closings now, but maybe one day: The House 2016 defense bill kills any hope the Defense Department may have had for saving money through base closings in fiscal 2016, but it leaves the door open by asking the Pentagon to do a new excess capacity study, the first step in determining what vacant and underused property the Pentagon has.
$76 million for Gitmo: Even as President Obama tries to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by speeding transfers of the remaining detainees, the House Armed Services Committee is including $76 million more for construction to fortify its presence there, a sign that Congress does not intend to allow Obama to close it. The money in the fiscal 2016 budget would go toward new housing for the approximately 2,000 troops who are assigned to the facility. The housing was one of the unfunded requirements provided to the committee by U.S. Southern Command, committee staff said.
Military compensation and retirement reform: After a series of hearings on the recommendations of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, the House Armed Services Committee accepted parts of 11 of the recommendations. None of those touched Tricare, the military’s medical system for its non-active duty members, dependents and retirees. The commission’s recommendations to overhaul the system were too sweeping, and the committee did not think it had time to examine the secondary effects any changes may have had.
However, the committee did include other recommendations from the commission, including establishing a 401(k)-type retirement system for new military personnel and the required financial literacy training that would go with it.
Weapons summary
A-10: They will be saved. Again. Committee staff deferred to Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas for the official numbers, but the subcommittee’s bill includes funding for the maintenance and operators the Warthog relies on.
Sea-based deterrence fund: The unique account funding the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine program gets its first actual money, $1.4 billion to move ahead on the first of 12 new submarines. The Navy has pleaded for a few years now to get the funding for the program moved from the Navy shipbuilding account and onto a more general account, so it won’t pull away funding from the rest of the Navy’s shipbuilding needs.
Slight cuts to the Long Range Strike Bomber: The successor to the stealth bomber, the contract for the highly classified plane is expected to be awarded in July. Some delays required less funding in fiscal 2016, staff said, so there will be less in this year’s bill for the program.
Funding for “Aegis Ashore” protection for Poland and Romania: The Navy’s destroyers and cruisers carry the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, and a land-capable version is being adapted and planned for two sites in Poland and Romania in a show of force against Russia. The systems will be manned by U.S. personnel, one way the U.S. has stepped up its game to reassure its NATO allies.
