On June 25, 2009, the full House passed its version of the fiscal year (FY) 2010 national defense authorization act. The Senate passed its version of the bill on July 23, 2009. This Update provides a brief assessment of how these two bills compare, both to each other and to the administration’s request, and what issues remain to be resolved during conference. The administration’s defense budget request is still working its way through the House and Senate appropriations process.
The House and Senate defense authorization bills would provide a total of $663.3 billion and $663.9 billion in discretionary budget authority, respectively, for the Department of Defense (DoD), similar to the $663.8 billion requested by the administration. Although consistent with the Obama Administration’s request at the topline level, the defense authorization bills differ from each other and from the administration’s request in several important details.