{"id":32898,"date":"2018-08-20T13:15:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T13:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/20\/this-week-in-congress-us-senate-debates-pentagon-spending-bill\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:36:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:36:35","slug":"this-week-in-congress-us-senate-debates-pentagon-spending-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/08\/20\/this-week-in-congress-us-senate-debates-pentagon-spending-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"This week in Congress: US Senate debates Pentagon spending bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The Senate will take up the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2018\/07\/17\/house-votes-champion-stable-military-spending-but-gridlock-looms\/\" target=\"_blank\">defense spending<\/a> bill, part of a package that includes other government spending, amid hopes to see it quickly become law \u2014 but Congress could still muck it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finalizing appropriations before the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, would avert the need for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2017\/12\/02\/handful-of-hawkish-us-lawmakers-urge-military-leaders-to-fight-new-cr\/\" target=_blank>stopgap spending<\/a> measure and give lawmakers who are running in the midterms bragging rights ahead of Election Day, Nov. 8. (Stopgap continuing resolutions have been the norm for years, but they disrupt new acquisition programs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the Senate takes up the bill Monday, the immediate challenge for its leaders will be to avoid controversial amendments that give their sponsors campaign fodder but endanger final passage of the bill. The upper chamber abbreviated its August recess, but the House does not return until Sept. 4, when it will have only 12 working days before the end of the fiscal year to pass its spending legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawmakers from both chambers will also have to use that time to negotiate a compromise between the two versions of appropriations legislation and win the signature of President Donald Trump, who has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/management\/leadership\/2018\/07\/30\/trump-says-he-has-no-problem-shutting-down-government\/\" target=\"_blank\">threatened a government shutdown<\/a> if he believes border wall funding is too low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Senate package joins spending for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and related agencies to the Pentagon bill, which contains $607 billion in base and $68 billion in wartime spending, hewing to the larger bipartisan budget deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c[Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis \u2014 a decorated general who commands deep respect on both sides of the aisle \u2014 has warned that \u2018failure to modernize our military risks leaving us with a force that could dominate the last war, but be irrelevant to tomorrow\u2019s security,\u201d said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. \u201cWe cannot allow that to happen. We must rebuild America\u2019s military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<strong>Tuesday, Aug. 21<\/strong>\n<br>Senate Armed Services \u2014 9:30 a.m. \u2014 Dirksen-G50\n<br>\n<i>Nominations<\/i>\n<br>Nominees Alan Ray Shaffer, to be deputy under secretary for\nacquisition and sustainment; Veronica Daigle, to be an assistant\nsecretary; and Casey Wardynski and Alex A. Beehler, both to be\nan assistant secretary of the Army, will testify.\n<br>\n<br>Senate Foreign Relations \u2014 10:00 a.m. \u2014 Dirksen-419\n<br>\n<i>Russia Relations<\/i>\n<br>Government officials will testify on U.S.-Russia relations.\n<br>\n<br>Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs \u2014 10:00 a.m. \u2014 Dirksen-538\n<br>\n<i>Russia Sanctions<\/i>\n<br>Government officials will testify on Russia sanctions, focusing\non current effectiveness and potential for next steps.\n<br>\n<br>Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism \u2014 2:30\np.m. \u2014 Dirksen-226\n<br>\n<i>Cyber Threats<\/i>\n<br>Testimony planned on examine cyber threats to our nation&#8217;s critical\ninfrastructure.<br>\n<br>\n<strong>Wednesday, Aug. 22<\/strong>\n<br>Senate Rules and Administration \u2013 10:30 a.m. \u2013 Russell-301\n<br>\n<i>Elections Bill<\/i>\n<br>Senators will hold a business meeting to consider an original\nbill entitled, &#8220;Secure Elections Act.\u201d\n<br>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense and veterans hearings on Capitol Hill for the week of Aug. 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":86,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[29,117,15,86],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3431],"class_list":["post-32898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ZEM52UQHRNDHVJABVPRBBAKTA4","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2018\/08\/20\/this-week-in-congress-us-senate-debates-pentagon-spending-bill\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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