Senate panel votes cut $8B from defense

Senate panel votes to cut $8B from defense

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jul 16, 2010 9:48:41 EDT

A key Senate committee decided Thursday to show some fiscal discipline, cutting $14 billion from the Obama administration’s 2011 budget — including $8 billion from the Defense Department.

The 17-12 vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee came on a procedural motion that divided up money among the 12 subcommittees responsible for discretionary funding of federal programs. This was a party-line vote, with Democrats voting for it and Republicans opposing the reduction.

The defense subcommittee receives $522.8 billion under the allocation, $8.1 billion less than the administration’s request. It is too soon so say how the committee will shave that much money off the 2011 defense budget, but it will not necessarily cause a lot of pain. The committee has made similar, although smaller, reductions in the defense budget in the past, but then made up for most of the reduction by shifting expenses into the off-budget war supplemental, where it doesn’t count against spending caps.

After approving the allocations, the committee passed a $141.1 billion appropriations bill covering military construction and veterans programs that is a modest $1.5 million less that the Obama administration requested. It includes full funding of the $18.7 billion part of the budget that pays for construction and family housing programs.

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Senate panel votes to cut 8B from defense