/.../President Barack Obama’s plans for a downsized military will be under attack as the House and Senate spar over the size of the Pentagon’s budget.
The Senate bill, approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee last week and expected to be considered on the floor within the next few weeks, lines up with the president’s budget request, while the House follows the fiscal plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said: “We’re within the Pentagon’s budget — $631.4 billion — unlike the House of Representatives, which was about $4 billion over the president’s budget request.”/.../
That $4 billion represents less than 1 percent of the Pentagon’s overall budget. Still, the difference in the cost of the two bills is likely to be one of the major sticking points once the competing measures reach a joint House and Senate conference committee for reconciliation, said Todd Harrison, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
“The House is more concerned about the top line and keeping it higher than the president’s request,” he said. “Going into an election year, they don’t want to be seen as underfunding defense.”
The Senate, for its part, will be reluctant to deviate from the president’s numbers.
The difference between the two bills, Harrison added, pales in comparison to the billions of dollars in automatic cuts, called sequestration, that are set to begin taking effect next year. “Those would represent a 10 percent cut,” he said.