McCain opens new front on DOD FY-17 topline

By Jason Sherman / November 19, 2015 at 5:46 PM

A powerful Republican lawmaker today signaled the fight over the size of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2017 budget -- ostensibly settled by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 -- is not over yet.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) -- citing last week's Paris terrorist attacks and think tanks studies that warn existing budgets will not finance the current national security strategy -- introduced legislation today to exempt national security spending from statutory caps set by the Budget Control Act, as recently amended, beginning in FY-17.

The proposed legislation will be a tough sell with Democrats and the White House, which since the passage of the BCA in 2011 have insisted on equal increases for non-defense discretionary spending during two previous negotiations to adjust the statutory spending caps.

Under the new two-year budget deal, DOD would have a base budget of $524.7 billion and $58.8 billion for overseas contingency operations, a total of $583 billion. That sum is $14.9 billion less in FY-17 that DOD originally planned.

McCain, making his case for the new legislation on the Senate floor this afternoon, said:

"If we choose not to fight ISIL, or deter Russian aggression in Europe, or uphold freedom of the seas in Asia, then we can justify the cuts to the budget. But neither Congress nor the Administration wants to do that. Nor should we. The only responsible thing to do, then, is to spend the money that is necessary to meet the national security requirements we have set for ourselves. And with the threats to our homeland growing closer, we cannot afford to delay any longer."

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