On September 17, the Senate approved, 88-8, the FY2009 Defense Authorization bill (S. 3001) after it approved a cloture motion, 61-32. The Senate began debating the measure last week (see The Source, 9/12/08); the Senate Armed Services Committee approved the measure on April 30 (see The Source, 5/2/08). The House approved its version of the measure on May 22 (see The Source, 5/23/08). A House-Senate conference committee will now meet to reconcile the two versions of the bill.
Sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the measure would authorize $612.5 billion for national defense in FY2009. This amount includes $542.5 billion for the Departments of Defense and Energy and $70 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
