us-lawmakers-reach-2017-budget-deal

This article details specific funding levels, acquisitions, and pay increases.

The deal, if passed, would fund the government through Sept. 30.

The deal contains less than half the $30 billion defense supplemental Trump sought, but $19.9 billion more than in the last year of the Obama administration.

Adding in emergency funds, the Pentagon’s budget would total $598.5 billion for 2017, according to a House Appropriations Committee fact sheet.

Defense sector analyst Roman Schweitzer, of Cowen and Co., called the deal “a walk-off home run in the 11th inning for defense,” but predicted the 2018 budget cycle is likely to be “mired in gridlock until the very end."

For defense, the bill contains $223 billion in operations and maintenance funding, $73.7 billion for research and development and $123.3 billion for equipment procurement.

The bill rejects end-strength cuts sought by the Obama administration and funds an added 3,000 Army soldiers and 1,000 active-duty Marines. There’s also a 2.1 percent pay raise, a half-percent higher than Obama requested.

The bill contains $21.2 billion 13 Navy ships, including three DDG-51 guided missile destroyers, three littoral combat ships, one LPD-17 amphibious transport dock, and a down payment on future polar icebreaker procurement.

The bill funds 74 F-35 fighter jets at $8.2 billion, with $1.1 billion for 14 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets—a dozen more than requested. There’s also $2.6 billion for 15 KC-46 tanker aircraft and $1.3 billion for 17 C-130J aircraft variants.

For the Army, it funds 62 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, 52 remanufactured and seven new AH-64 Apaches; 20 MQ-1 Gray Eagle unmanned aerial vehicles; 28 Lakota light utility helicopters, with $210 million for Humvee modernization.