Lawmakers agree to final FY-20 defense authorization bill

House and Senate negotiators have finalized a fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill that clears the way for $738 billion in national security spending and establishes a new U.S. Space Force.

The bill, which must still be passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, is expected to be voted on this week.

The bill “recognizes space as a warfighting domain and establishes the U.S. Space Force in Title 10 as the sixth Armed Service of the United States, under the U.S. Air Force,” according to a summary released by lawmakers.

“The [bill] provides the Secretary of the Air Force with the authority to transfer Air Force personnel to the newly established Space Force,” the summary states. “To minimize cost and bureaucracy, the Space Force will require no additional billets and remains with the president’s budget request.”

The bill sidesteps the thorny issue of how to address Trump’s use of DOD funds for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, opting to leave the matter to be solved by congressional appropriators. Additionally, the bill does not place any new restrictions on DOD’s ability to reprogram money, something House Democrats had threatened to do.

The bill, however, would provide 12 weeks’ paid leave for federal employees, a key issue for Democratic negotiators that many Republicans had opposed.

The legislation does not block DOD from deploying low-yield nuclear weapons, a prohibition that had been in the Democrats’ House bill.

Some progressive Democrats are expected to vote against the bill because it does not include authorization of funds for a global cleanup of chemicals known as PFAS, nor does it block U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen.

“This conference report is the product of months of hard-fought, but always civil and ultimately productive, negotiations,” leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees said in a joint statement. “We would like to thank all the conferees for their contributions and hard work. We look forward to ushering the conference report through the House and Senate as soon as possible and on to the president’s desk for his signature.”

To view the conference report and joint explanatory statement, click here.