June 20, 2019 | International, Other Defence

House passes $983 billion spending package 226-203, bucking White House

WASHINGTON ― The Democratic-controlled House passed a $985 billion appropriations package for fiscal 2020 that aims to fund national security at $17 billion less than the White House requested, end the post-2001 war authorizations after eight months, pull military support in Yemen and defund the W76-2 nuclear warhead.

The vote was 225-203, with seven Democrats voting with the Republican minority. Zero Republicans voted for the bill.

It's a salvo from Democrats in FY20 budget negotiations with the GOP-controlled Senate and White House, and the White House has threatened that President Donald Trump would veto the massive bill. Beyond the above provisions and others, the administration strongly objected to language meant to block Pentagon funds being applied to a wall on the southern border.

The threat foreshadows pushback from the Senate and the White House, in part because both advocated for a $750 billion national defense budget, while the House-passed bill is consistent with a $733 billion national defense budget. (The House bill would fund the Pentagon alone at $8 billion less than the White House request.)

The four-bill “minibus” contained the two largest of the 12 annual appropriations bills; the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill and the Defense bill. For the defense, it totaled $645.1 billion in base-defense funding, and $68.1 billion in the budget-cap-exempt wartime funding account.

House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., emphasized the package's investments outside the Pentagon, including a 4 percent increase in State Department funding.

“This bill rejects the administration's unacceptable budget request and irresponsible policies and, rather, strives to uphold many bipartisan congressional priorities,” Lowey said when the bill was introduced. “America's foreign policy is strongest when diplomacy, development and defense are well-funded and equally prioritized, as many of today's global challenges cannot be addressed by military intervention alone.”

Republicans have opposed the minibus as an empty exercise because Congress lacks a bipartisan deal to ease spending caps and avoid across-the-board sequestration cuts. Nor does the bill contain border wall funding sought by conservative Republicans.

“Moving these bills as-is is a wasted opportunity because the bills are far from what the president has requested and will support,” said the House Appropriations Committee's ranking member, Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas.

“Defense spending does not meet the request while nondefense spending greatly exceeds the request in current levels. This could lead to a veto and another government shutdown, something both [parties] agree would be devastating ― in addition to these funding concerns.”

The White House issued a veto threat last week that spelled out its objections to provisions in the bill that would end the post-2001 war authorizations after eight months and pull military support in Yemen―and because the House parked less defense spending in the budget-cap skirting war fund.

The language surrounding the authorization for the use of military force, Granger said, could jeopardize the Pentagon's ability to conduct military operations worldwide. “It's a bad policy that will force the DoD to unwind counterterrorism operations overseas if the Congress and the president cannot agree on a new authorization,” she said.

To avoid another government shutdown, 12 appropriations bills must pass Congress and get the president's signature by Oct. 1. Negotiations between the White House and lead lawmakers on a deal to ease budget caps has been ongoing, according to a statement last week by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.. (The Senate Appropriations Committee hasn't yet moved any of its bills.)

Another likely sticking point in budget talks with the GOP-controlled Senate and the White House is the minibus' bill's prohibition on the Defense Department spending funds to implement its policy on open transgender service. The vote to approve an amendment that contained the prohibition broke mostly along party lines, 234-183.

The amendment targets a March 12 memo that would largely bar transgender troops and military recruits from transitioning to another gender, and require most individuals to serve in their birth sex.

The House defeated Republican amendments that would have added back $19.6 million for the W76-2 low-yield submarine-launched nuclear warhead and would have added back $96 million for “conventional missile systems” in the range of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. However, it also defeated a Democratic amendment that would have barred funding for research on the Long Range Standoff weapon.

The bill was passed out of committee with language to restrict the Pentagon's authority to transfer money between accounts to $1.5 billion ― a response from Democrats to the administration's use of defense funds for Trump's proposed border wall.

Next week, the House is expected to take up a separate minibus that contains the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, which was at the heart of last year's 35-day government shutdown.

https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/06/19/house-passes-983-billion-spending-package-226-203-bucking-white-house/

On the same subject

April 16, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Armées : Florence Parly compte sur une hausse de ses crédits pour relancer l'industrie française
Par Michel Cabirol La ministre des Armées estime que son ministère aura un "rôle particulier à jouer lorsqu'il s'agira de relancer l'économie française". Pour l'heure, le budget des armées est épargné. C'est une première indication. Et elle est positive pour les armées et l'industrie de défense française. "Lorsque nous examinerons le prochain budget, je ne doute pas que certains de nos crédits de paiements auront augmenté, afin d'amplifier la relance", a assuré le 10 avril la ministre des Armées Florence Parly lors de son audition au Sénat. Premier investisseur de l'État, le ministère des armées aura "un rôle particulier à jouer lorsqu'il s'agira de relancer l'économie française", a-t-elle expliqué. close volume_off Le ministère dispose, dans le cadre du programme 146 (Equipements militaires), "de moyens importants pour faire travailler aussi bien nos grandes industries de défense que le tissu de PME qui les entourent", a fait valoir Florence Parly. Car compte tenu de la récession qui s'annonce, le ministère des armées sera "un acteur clef, avec une responsabilité particulière", a-t-elle insisté. Interrogés par La Tribune, certains industriels de l'armement ne demandent ni plus, ni moins que le respect de la LPM (Loi de programmation militaire). Et ils rappellent que cette industrie produit 100% "Made in France" ou presque. L'industrie au service des armées Le ministère des Armées a demandé dès le début de la crise du Covid-19 aux industriels de la défense de maintenir leurs activités industrielles indispensables aux forces armées pour qu'elles poursuivent leurs missions. Florence Parly l'a redit vendredi dernier : "La continuité de l'industrie de la défense est essentielle à nos opérations". En outre, elle a demandé au délégué général pour l'armement de porter "une attention spéciale à la trésorerie des PME, et de réduire les délais de paiement". Pour suivre au plus près la santé financière et économique de la base industrielle et technologique de défense, le ministère a dressé une cartographie précise de la situation des entreprises. Le ministère porte également une attention à ses nombreux fournisseurs. Dans ce cadre, elle a demandé à ce que toutes les factures de moins de 5.000 euros soient traitées selon une procédure accélérée. "Depuis le 20 mars, nous en avons payé 22.000, pour un montant de 23 millions d'euros, a souligné Florence Parly. Hier, à Metz, la personne en charge de cette procédure m'a dit que 1.500 des 2.000 factures qui étaient en stock au début de la crise ont été réglées en quelques jours. Les équipes de la direction générale des finances publiques se montrent très réactives et assurent rapidement le paiement final". Le budget des armées pour l'heure épargné Pour l'heure, le ministère est épargné au niveau budgétaire. Le premier projet de loi finances rectificative (PLFR), adopté il y a quelques jours, "n'a aucun impact sur le budget de mon ministère, a affirmé la ministre. Le second, qui sera présenté au prochain conseil des ministres, ne l'affectera pas davantage". En outre, a-t-elle souligné, "nous veillerons à ce que les réflexions sur le système de santé publique prennent en compte le service de santé des armées". D'une façon générale, il est "un peu tôt pour parler du coût de l'opération Résilience (notamment sur le programme 146, ndlr), d'autant qu'il faudra apprécier l'impact de cette crise sur le budget global des armées : certaines activités ont été moins importantes que prévu, aussi". https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/aeronautique-defense/armees-florence-parly-compte-sur-une-hausse-de-ses-credits-pour-relancer-l-industrie-francaise-845282.html
December 19, 2018 | International, Land

Are the days of pulling pits at the rifle range coming to an end?
By: Shawn Snow As a shooter on rifle range qualification day, have you ever seen your target come up crooked, barely hanging onto the stand, and wonder, “What the heck are the Marines doing in the rifle pits?” Pulling pits at the rifle range might be most Marines' least favorite task. It requires constantly raising and lowering targets just to see them fall off the rickety stands, and quickly patching them up with pasties to give the shooter a clean canvas ... just to watch them fall off again. It's a frustrating, tedious task. There's the fact you have to rely on another Marine in the pit to accurately score your shots — and that one-point difference between the marksmen pizza box badge and sharpshooter can save a a lot of scorn before the next chance to qualify. There's the shooter who probably missed the target entirely during the last course of fire, leaving the scorer staring at the target for an eternity, seeking a nonexistent shot hole. There's always the Marine who shoots on the wrong target — those must just be bonus points to help a buddy who is about to fail on the range. The Corps' entire rifle range qualification process is rife with human error and inefficiencies that can impact Marines' scores on the range. Well, the Corps finally is looking to remedy this. In a request for information posted on the government's business opportunities portal, the Corps is in the hunt for an automatic scoring system for its ranges. In the posting the Corps said that the purpose of the new scoring system is to “reduce the amount of labor necessary to conduct KD [known distance] training/qualification. By eliminating the need for target operators in the pits, the labor overhead associated with KD training is greatly reduced.” “During marksmanship training the KDAS [known distance automated scoring] will be required to accurately show the shooter where they hit the target, to provide feedback that will assist the shooter in developing their shooting skills," the RFI stated. And the Corps is looking for a complete system that will streamline the scoring process and ease the rifle range qualification process. According to the RFI, the Corps wants new scoring platform display systems for coaches and shooters. For marksman coaches on the range, a new display unit will allow the coach to view and track the shots of four shooter lanes at once. Shooters will have a display unit that will let them track their individual shot placement and score as well. A single control system will be able to communicate wirelessly and control up to 100 targets at once, according to the RFI. That means no more Marines in the pits manually pulling targets up and down. The new scoring system is intended to reduce “the amount of time shooters need to spend on the range, freeing them up to perform other work,” the RFI reads. So maybe the days of showing up to the range at dawn also are coming to an end? Responses to the Corps' request for information regarding the new scoring system are due by Jan 11. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/12/18/are-the-days-of-pulling-pits-at-the-rifle-range-coming-to-an-end
October 10, 2018 | International, Naval

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - October 9, 2018
NAVY NAVMAR Applied Sciences Corp.,* Warminster, Pennsylvania, is awarded $7,707,370 for cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order N6833519F0432 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N68335-15-G-0013). This delivery order provides for the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase III work that derives from, extends, or completes an effort performed under SBIR Topics N08-008 entitled “Commandable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Sensor,” N08-023 titled “Precision High Altitude Sonobuoy Emplacement,” and N101-042 titled “Environmental Wideband Acoustic Receiver and Source.” The tasks include performance modeling and simulation, fabrication, component integration, test, training, and prototype procurement activities in support of the Extended Life Sonobuoy/Automated Extended Life Sonobuoy program. Work will be performed in Warminster, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be completed in October 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,690,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1657693/

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