The following is the Congressional Research Service report, Defense Authorization and Appropriations Bills: FY1961-FY2019. Read More
Tag Archives: HAC-D
Navy Working New Fleet Size Study Following Latest Strategic Reviews
Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Justin Dallarosa uses binoculars on the fantail to observe as USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) approaches the pier during its return to Naval Station (NAVSTA) Norfolk on March 1, 2018. US Navy Photo
CAPITOL HILL — Following the release of new national security and defense strategies, the Navy is undertaking a new Fleet Structure Assessment that could alter its stated goal of a 355-ship fleet, senior service officials told Congress this week. Read More
Proposed FY 2017 HAC-D Bill Boosts Navy Shipbuilding, Aviation Funding
USS Freedom (LCS-1) transits alongside USS Anchorage (LPD-23) off the coast of Southern California on Feb. 16, 2016. US Navy Photo
The proposed Fiscal Year 2017 spending bill from the House Appropriations defense subcommittee (HAC-D) calls for increases in the Navy’s aviation and shipbuilding spends over the service’s initial budget request. Read More
Opinion: Maintaining American Seapower
USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) transits the Gulf of Aden in 2014. US Navy Photo
Facing an increasing array of threats and demands even as our budgetary situation grows more challenging, it is clear that the Navy and Marine Corps team offers the best value to advance both our global security and economic interests.
Uniquely, the Navy and Marine Corps provide presence around the world, around the clock. We are the nation’s first line of defense, ready for any challenge on the horizon. Presence means we respond faster; remain on station longer; carry everything we need with us; and do whatever missions our nation’s leaders assign us without needing anyone else’s permission. Read More
Navy Carrier Refueling and More Growlers Funded in House Appropriation Mark
A sailor directs an EA-18G Growler from the Cougars of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 139 on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) on May 21, 2014 US Navy Photo
House appropriators side stepped proposed cuts to the Navy’s maritime and aviation fleets on Friday, unanimously approving plans to finance a slew of service-led shipbuilding and air programs in the upcoming fiscal year. Read More
Mabus Defends LCS on the Hill
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Adm. Jonathan Greenert estify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Tuesday. US Navy Photo
With the USS Freedom (LCS-1) due to arrive in Singapore this week, the Littoral Combat Ship program’s cost received close scrutiny—as well as some sharp questions about the vessel’s survivability—during a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on 7 May.
Despite New Jersey Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen’s opening statement that the LCS and many others in the shipbuilding plan “to our way of thinking are support ships” rather than “classic combatants” such as large cruisers or submarines, and Virginia Democrat Jim Moran’s comments near the end of the two-and-a-half-hour session that “no other ship requires contractors throughout the deployment,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus defended the LCS as “one of our best performing programs.” Read More
How a Defense Bill Becomes Defense Law
Congress closed its 2010-2012 session by passing a fiscal package that delays deep cuts to the defense budget and other executive branch agencies for two months, averting the “fiscal cliff” that threatened to slash nearly $50 billion from DOD’s 2013 appropriations ledger.
The negotiations offered a very public look at the high-drama posturing that has become a hallmark of dealings between the White House and Capitol Hill. To many casual observers, the back-and-forth signaled a new low in relations between the two branches, but to many on the inside, it was symptomatic of the legislative process that grinds on every day, usually outside of public view.
The hard work of crafting bipartisan legislation may take months of talks behind closed doors but produce only a few days of newsworthy drama. The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is one of those must-pass measures that enjoy overwhelming bipartisan support but take months of meetings, briefings, hearings and tense negotiations among members of the House and Senate from both sides of the aisle and DOD. The Hill and Pentagon trade budget requests, legislative proposals, cost estimates, testing data, planning documents and long-term strategy to craft each year’s spending priorities and an overarching national-security policy. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) leads the four defense committees each year, followed by House and Senate Defense Appropriators — the HAC-D and SAC-D — and finally the Senate Armed Services Committee — SASC.
