LegiStorm

Summary:

Soon after the 111th Congress convened, it began drafting H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, generally referred to as the "economic stimulus" bill. This bill added a total of $8.5 billion to amount previously appropriated for DOD in FY2009. Of the additional funds provided by H.R. 1, $4.6 billion was for accounts funded by the regular FY2009 DOD appropriations provided by Division D of the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act for FY2009, generally referred to as the "continuing resolution," which President George W. Bush signed into law on Sept. 30, 2008. The economic stimulus bill also provided an additional $2.9 billion for accounts funded by the regular military construction appropriations provided by Division E of the continuing resolution. Congress' disposition of FY2009 funding for DOD in H.R. 1 (other than funding for military construction) is discussed in this report on pp. 3-5, below. The balance of the report discusses the President's regular DOD budget request for FY2009 and Congress' disposition of that request in the regular defense authorization and appropriations legislation. The President's FY2009 budget request, released February 4, 2008, included $611.1 billion in new budget authority for national defense. This total included $515.4 billion in discretionary budget authority for the base budget of the Department of Defense (DOD)—i.e., activities not associated with operations in Iraq and Afghanistan—$2.9 billion in mandatory spending for the DOD base budget, and $22.8 billion for defense costs of the Department of Energy and other agencies. It also included a placeholder of $70 billion for war costs in the first part of FY2009. On April 30, the Senate Armed Services Committee marked up its version of the FY2009 defense authorization bill (S. 3001), authorizing the appropriation of $612.5 billion in new budget authority, including $542.5 billion for the baseline budget and a $70 billion allowance for war-related costs. On September 17, the Senate passed the authorization bill by a vote of 88-8. The House passed its version of the defense authorization bill (H.R. 5658) on May 22, authorizing $612.5 billion for national defense, including $70 billion for war-related costs. The bill denied authorization of the $2.5 billion requested for a third destroyer of the DDG-1000 class, allocating those funds instead to buy several other ships. A compromise between the House and Senate bills authorizing $611.1 billion, worked out informally, was passed by the House September 24 as an amended version of the Senate-passed S. 3001 by a vote of 392-39. The Senate passed the bill September 27 by voice vote and the President signed it on October 14 (P.L. 110-417). The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its version of the FY2009 Defense Appropriations Bill on July 30, recommending a total of $477.6 billion, $4 billion less than the President requested for that bill. The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its version of the appropriations bill on September 10, also recommending $477.6 billion. Neither chamber held full committee markups of a FY2009 defense appropriations bill, and neither chamber considered a bill on the floor. Instead, a compromise version of the subcommittee bills was incorporated into H.R. 2638, the FY2009 Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act. The bill included $477.6 billion in regular FY2009 defense appropriations and $25.0 billion in military construction appropriations. The House passed the compromise bill September 24 (370-58). The Senate passed the bill September 27 (78-12), and the President signed it September 30 (P.L. 110-329).