This week, House appropriators began work on the FY2005 spending bills. Three subcommittees approved the following bills under their jurisdiction: Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of the Interior and Related Agencies.
Department of Defense
On June 2, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense approved, by voice vote, the FY2005 Department of Defense spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered).
The measure would allocate $415.9 billion for the Department of Defense in FY2005, a $47.7 billion increase over FY2004 and $12.1 billion below the administration’s request. As requested by President Bush, $25 billion would be provided to partially cover the projected costs of continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The defense appropriations bill includes several women’s health research programs, but because the mark-up session was closed to the public, no additional information was made available. The full committee is scheduled to consider the Department of Defense spending bill next week.
