Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said recently that approval of the fiscal 2015 defense spending bill by his committee was the earliest since 1974.That’s good news. Even better is the fact that it has already been approved by the full House by a 340-73 vote.The $570.4 billion defense spending bill stays within the cap for discretionary spending mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act passed in December 2013.Included in the $570.4 billion is $79.4 billion slated for Overseas Contingency Operations; however, as this goes to press, details of that request have not been submitted by the administration.Much of the committee’s actions align closely with the House-passed Defense authorization bill and would appropriate:

• $31.6 billion for defense health programs. The committee essentially rejected all of the Administration’s proposals to increase/create fees for the TRICARE health care program; consolidate the three major plans within the TRICARE program; and increase pharmacy fees.
• $2.6 billion for Defense Department Dependent Schools and $40 million in unrequested funds for Impact Aid, a program administered by the Education Department to provide supplementary funds to school districts nationwide in order to support the education of nearly 600,000 children of service members.
• $100 million in unrequested funds for the commissary system to maintain current operations for 2015. The committee’s report states that it supports the defense commissary system and the benefits it yields to service members worldwide.
• $475 million for tuition assistance.
• $534 million in additional funding for an across-the-board 1.8% pay increase for military personnel in FY 2015, a 0.8-percentage-point increase over the president’s request.
• $164.6 billion in non-war funding to operate and maintain U.S. forces and for the maintenance of materials and facilities worldwide in FY 2015, $1.3 billion less than requested.
• $1 billion in added funds for the operation and maintenance accounts for the active services, the National Guard and the reserve components, to be used only for improving military readiness.
• The funding is to be used only to improve readiness, including increased training, depot maintenance, and base operations support. None of the funding provided may be used for recruiting, marketing or advertising programs.
• An additional $39 million above the request for suicide prevention outreach programs, including the Yellow Ribbon program that helps guardsmen and reservists transition to civilian life upon returning from deployment.

The measure would set end strength for the Army at 490,000 which is 30,000 less than the fiscal 2014 level.The committee responded to the Army’s proposed Aviation Restructure Initiative with mixed results.The plan would have retired some of the older helicopters while shifting Apache helicopters from the Army National Guard to the active force.In turn, the guard would receive Black Hawk and M utility helicopters. The committee largely agreed with the plan except for the transfer of the Apaches from the guard.Instead the committee directed the defense secretary to submit a report to Congress within 120 days of enactment outlining the number of aircraft being retired, the number of airframes being transferred to other government agencies, the number of airframes being offered for sale to other nations, the cost of divesting these aircraft and the impact the divestiture of these airframes will have on the domestic rotary-wing industrial base.The Army is prohibited from divesting any aircraft until the report is submitted.The measure appropriates $1.3 billion for 87 multiuse Black Hawks for the Army and guard, $119 million more than the president's request. The added funds are for eight additional UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to address Army National Guard modernization shortfalls.What’s next: Focus is now on the Senate. Appropriators have not yet marked up their version of the bill. However, Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski has said that she wants all spending bills to be passed by August.Once the House and Senate bills are passed, a conference committee will be scheduled to iron out any differences.