DOD Authorization Bills Advance in House, Senate
June 12 was an important day for the defense community. On that day, both the House and Senate authorizing committees responsible for DOD completed their bills for FY 1998.
Authorization bills are intended to approve programs and set funding levels, although they do not provide any actual money. That is done by the appropriators. In many cases, appropriators do not follow the guidelines set by the authorizers, or authorizing legislation is not passed in time to affect the appropriations, but defense funding is an exception. House and Senate authorizers try to produce a timely bill, and the appropriators usually align their legislation closely with the authorization.
The House National Security Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee bills vary in content. For the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) account, the Senate bill is identical to President Clinton’s FY 1998 request, while the House would provide more for this account. The authorization levels are specified for each service, but not broken out into the DOD research and development categories of 6.1 (basic research), 6.2 (applied research), and 6.3 (advanced technology development.) Each amount includes test and evaluation as well as research and development. However, the House National Security bill specifies that of the $37.3 billion it recommends for RDT&E, $4.132 billion (or 11 percent) “shall be available for basic research and applied research projects.”
Below, authorization amounts for each service are compared to the President’s FY 1998 request and current-year (FY 1997) funding.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE RDT&E:
FY97 |
FY98 |
House bill |
Senate bill |
|
Service |
Approp. |
Request |
(H.R. 1119) |
(S. 450) |
(In billions) |
||||
Army |
$4.93 |
4.511 |
4.753 |
4.511 |
Navy |
7.851 |
7.611 |
7.947 |
7.611 |
Air Force |
14.069 |
14.451 |
14.66 |
14.451 |
Defense |
||||
Agencies* |
9.738 |
9.361 |
9.914 |
9.361 |
TOTAL |
36.589 |
35.934 |
37.274 |
35.934 |
*Defense Agencies include the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and others.
The full House passed its version of the bill, H.R. 1119, on June 26. The Senate is expected to complete its version shortly after returning from the 4th of July recess. The two versions need to be reconciled by a House-Senate conference, and voted on again, before going to President Clinton for signing.
