Senate panel to consider defense spending bill next week

By Tony Bertuca / September 6, 2019 at 12:33 PM

The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the fiscal year 2020 defense spending bill Sept. 10.

The full committee, meanwhile, is scheduled to vote on the bill Sept. 12.

Partly because the Senate has yet to mark up any spending bills, the House has scheduled a vote for the week of Sept. 16 to pass a stopgap continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded past Sept. 30. Staffers say the CR could extend into late November.

Plans for the CR come despite a bipartisan budget agreement that has already set topline spending levels for both defense and non-defense for FY-20 and FY-21.

House and Senate authorizers are also preparing to go into conference with their opposing FY-20 defense policy bills when Congress returns from summer recess.

The appropriations and authorizations processes are expected to become entangled in debates on President Trump’s efforts to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
 

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