House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman Rob Wittman is confident Congress will pass a short-term budget extension in the next few weeks and eventually finalize plans for $833 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2025.
But the Virginia Republican congressman acknowledged that the details of how lawmakers will get there is still a mystery.
Wittman’s comments at the Defense News Conference on Wednesday came just 26 days before a potential partial government shutdown if House and Senate leaders cannot pass a budget extension by Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
“I think we know we’re not going to get the seven remaining appropriations bills done between now and the end of the fiscal year,” he said. “In light of that, it looks like there’s going to be another continuing resolution that will come up next week, probably the middle of next week. The debate has been how long should that last.”
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With the presidential and congressional elections in 64 days, lawmakers have begun debating whether to extend the budget into mid-November or early 2025, after the new Congress is seated.
Either way, defense planners likely won’t have their allotment of the federal budget until multiple months into the new fiscal year.
Wittman called the short-term budget extensions necessary, but “the worst way for us to be able to manage the defense enterprise,” given the uncertainty surrounding when new programs and initiatives will be fully funded and can start.
But he believes that Pentagon officials can count on the House-passed $833 billion target for total defense spending next fiscal year, whenever the federal budget is finally finalized.
“With the Fiscal Responsibility Act, it actually appropriates to that, and I think that’s the number you’re actually going to have to live with,” he said. “And I think that the Pentagon should be able to do most of the things that it needs to do with that number.”
White House officials have signaled they expect to request supplemental funding to deal with some outstanding defense fiscal needs. During a separate panel at the conference, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said her service will need extra money to cover the rising cost of installations services.
“Not only are our barracks and housing in need of investment, our power projection infrastructure is in need of investment as well,” she said. “It’s really hard to do that all inside the existing Army top line.”
Both the House and Senate return to Capitol Hill work next week.
