The House passed a $659 billion defense appropriations bill on Tuesday, a largely symbolic move not expected to advance without an overarching spending deal.
The 236-183 vote, which fell along party lines, was no surprise because the chamber had passed the same spending bill twice last year. But Republicans teed up the newest vote knowing it will underscore Congress’ inability to approve defense funding for 2018 and to provide some partisan ammunition for President Trump hours before his first State of the Union address.
Twenty-three Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the bill. Four Republicans voted against: Reps. Justin Amash, John Duncan, John Massie and Mark Sanford.
The president promised the largest defense buildup in American history in a speech to a joint session of Congress one year ago. The needed funding hike is months overdue and will remain stalled unless Congress can strike an overarching agreement on immigration reform and top-line funding levels for the Pentagon and non-defense priorities.
“The fiscal year is over 30 percent done and we have been unable to appropriate the funds our military needs to defend the nation,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a House Armed Services Committee member, who spoke on the floor in favor of the budget bill.
Cheney said the military has been strangled over the past decade by stopgap budgets passed by Congress. She called the appropriations bill a crucial step to reverse the trend.
“For those who vote ‘no’ there will be no place to hide when history comes to ask why they failed to do their duty,” she said.
The bill would boost spending for the Pentagon, though not as high as Trump’s requested $668 billion budget. It includes $584 billion in base defense spending and $75 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations account, as well as increases in troop numbers.
However, passing spending at those levels would bust through a $549 billion cap imposed by the Budget Control Act and would trigger the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration if passed into law.
Congress must vote to lift those caps or stick to the caps.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., wanted to know why the chamber was wasting its time with another symbolic vote on the appropriations bill without a budget deal.
“I know … that many people think that the third time is a charm but I think that the third time is a farce,” McGovern said. “Neither this defense bill nor any other appropriations bill can move until the House and Senate Republican leadership get their acts together, negotiate a budget agreement that works for all our federal programs and finally set the top-line numbers for all our appropriations bills.”
