The House passed the Mulvaney-Frank amendment to the military budget
last night.
The House approved a nearly $606 billion Pentagon budget bill Thursday evening after agreeing to cap core defense appropriations at 2012 levels — $1.1 billion below what was recommended by the Republican leadership.
The freeze marks a modest but still important turning point in the budget wars with 89 Republicans joining 158 Democrats on the key 247-167 vote.
Indeed, the final bill — approved 326-90 — remains more than $6 billion over the stricter defense caps set in the Budget Control Act for the Pentagon. But the GOP support garnered by Mulvaney on his amendment and earlier votes on Pakistan and Afghanistan funding reflected a greater willingness by Republicans to cut from security appropriations.
The freeze amendment brings the core Pentagon appropriations back to about $518.1 billion, $1.1 billion below what was recommended by the leadership. At the same time, a second pot of $88.2 billion in emergency war-related funds was cut by about $825 million in the course of the two-day floor debate.
Much as it resisted the Mulvaney-Frank freeze, that loss for the Appropriations Committee leadership was more the exception — not the rule.
Deeper cuts proposed by liberal Democrats were easily defeated in most cases, and the underlying funding for military operations was never in any serious jeopardy.
http://www.nj.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2012/07/house_oks_606b_defense_budget.html
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