Defense bill has $92.7m for Drum
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators agreed on an annual defense bill that approves $92.7 million in construction at Fort Drum, boosts soldiers' salaries by 3.4 percent and eliminates a troubled ground combat vehicle program in the Army. But the measure also tests a White House veto threat by funding an alternative fighter jet engine the Pentagon says it doesn't need.
The legislation, outlining defense programs for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, was finalized by a House-Senate conference committee. It awaits final passage and President Obama's signature.
It also is the last defense measure to bear the legislative fingerprints of former Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, who left his post as ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee in June after President Obama picked him to become Army secretary.
"We didn't get everything we wanted out of this legislation," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a press conference. But he said lawmakers wanted to move the measure as quickly as possible while U.S. forces are on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The raise — the latest of several passed by Congress in recent years — is half a percentage point greater than the Obama administration requested and exceeds the rate of inflation, said Sen. Carl M. Levin, D-Mich., the Senate committee chairman.
In addition, he said, the legislation boosts supplemental subsistence payments to low-income soldiers with dependents, a move intended to prevent soldiers from having to participate in the federal food stamp program.
"No one should be on food stamps who wears the uniform of this country," Mr. Levin said.
The conference committee, ironing out differences between House and Senate versions of the annual bill, went along with the Obama administration's request to eliminate a ground combat vehicle in the Army as part of the Future Combat Systems, since renamed. Lawmakers also cut other systems in agreement with the administration but set up a potential conflict over the F-35 fighter jet program. Over a veto threat, the panel funded an alternative engine for the joint strike fighter, as senators acceded to a top priority of the House Armed Services Committee and of the Boeing Corp., the contractor on the program and a major employer.
The White House threatened to veto the bill over such a provision, but Mr. Levin pointed to specific language from the White House suggesting a veto hinges on whether funding for the new engine is taken from the F-35 program itself. The conferees decided to take money from other sources, he said, possibly avoiding a showdown.
"At the end of the day, this was a top House issue," Mr. Levin said. "It was a compromise we had to make in order to get this legislation passed."
The measure also repeals Defense Department workplace rules for civilian employees that were implemented during the Bush administration. The National Security Personnel System has been embroiled in controversy since its enactment, with labor unions complaining that it undermines collective bargaining.
Employees were who put into the system would have to be returned to previously existing civilian personnel systems, although lawmakers approved "new personnel flexibilities" in assigning and evaluating employees.
Mr. McHugh's contributions to the bill include an $8.2 million all-weather marksmanship facility at Fort Drum. Other construction at the post, requested by the administration, include $57 million for barracks, a $21 million warriors-in-transition complex for soldiers dealing with war injuries, and a $6.5 million water system expansion.
