Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today he is planning to schedule a final vote for the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill this week.
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Tony Bertuca is chief editor of Inside the Pentagon, the flagship publication of InsideDefense, where he focuses on defense budget and acquisition policy. He previously worked for the Sun-Times News Group in his hometown of Chicago, IL, and at the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, NH. Tony has also served as managing editor of Inside the Army. He has a master's degree in journalism from Boston University.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today he is planning to schedule a final vote for the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill this week.
Acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who began running the Pentagon today, says the Defense Department's priorities "remain unchanged."
The Senate will debate the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill this week, while the Pentagon gets a new acting defense secretary.
The White House announced tonight that President Trump intends to formally nominate Army Secretary Mark Esper to become the next defense secretary.
The House and Senate Armed Services committees have approved legislation that would require a review of the Pentagon's use of fixed-price contracts.
Army Secretary Mark Esper, who is slated to become acting defense secretary when Pat Shanahan resigns Sunday, will travel to a NATO defense meeting in Brussels next week, according to chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.
The House voted 226-203 to pass a nearly $1 trillion minibus appropriations bill that includes fiscal year 2020 Defense Department spending.
President Trump has said he will "most likely" nominate Army Secretary Mark Esper to take over permanently for acting Defense Secretary Pat Shananan, whose nomination collapsed this week amid media reports of past violent incidents involving his family.
President Trump tweeted that acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan has decided to remove himself from the nomination process to become permanent Pentagon chief.
The Senate Armed Services Committee wants the Defense Department to review the Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, a massive services contract that provides food, sanitation, housing, maintenance, and power generation for military operations and associated civilian support.
The Defense Department announced today it plans to provide $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, including a variety of small arms, maritime surveillance systems, night vision equipment and electronic warfare detection and secure communications systems.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is urging the Pentagon to find faster alternatives to the way it currently obtains cost and pricing data from defense contractors.
Just eight months ago, the Pentagon was planning for two defense budgets -- and both were lower than the $750 billion now being advocated by congressional Republicans.
The Senate is scheduled to begin floor debate on its version of the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill this week. Meanwhile, the House is slated to continue voting on a minibus appropriations measure that includes the FY-20 defense spending bill.
The Senate Armed Services Committee remains concerned the Pentagon does not have a process in place to prioritize what it needs to implement the National Defense Strategy and its new focus on China and Russia, according to a report accompanying the committee's version of the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill.
Just eight months ago, the Pentagon was planning for two defense budgets -- and both were lower than the $750 billion now being advocated by congressional Republicans.
The House Armed Services Committee early this morning voted 33-24 to approve its version of the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, with all but two Republicans voting "no."
House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) wants to offer an amendment to the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill being debated today that would increase the budgetary topline from $733 billion to $750 billion, but there is concern among his staff that Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) will rule the amendment "out of order" because it does not provide offsets to finance the increase.
House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) said today he and his GOP colleagues have yet to decide whether they will support the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill slated for consideration tomorrow, but he does have plans to offer amendments that would increase total defense spending and block Democratic efforts to cut nuclear weapons programs.
The Pentagon has made a $34 billion "handshake agreement" with Lockheed Martin for Lot 12 of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with options for Lots 13 and 14, according to a statement from Defense Department acquisition chief Ellen Lord.