Defense: FY2008 Authorization and Appropriations
Abstract
The President's FY2008 federal budget request, released February 5, 2007, included $647.4 billion in new budget authority for national defense. In addition to $483.2 billion for the regular operations of the Department of Defense (DOD), the request included $141.7 billion for continued military operations, primarily to fund the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, $17.4 billion for the nuclear weapons and other defense-related programs of the Department of Energy, and $5.2 billion for defense-related activities of other agencies. On July 31, 2007, the President requested an additional $5.3 billion for war-fighting costs, and on October 22 he requested an additional $42.3 billion for that purpose, bringing his total request for FY2008 war costs to $189.3 billion and the total requested for DOD in FY2008 to $695.1 billion. The $483.2 billion requested for DOD's "base" budget -- that is, the request for regular operations excluding the cost of ongoing combat activity -- is $46.8 billion higher than the agency's base budget for FY2007, an increase of 11% in nominal terms and, by DOD's reckoning, an increase in real purchasing power of 8.0%. The House passed on May 17 its version of the authorization bill, H.R. 1585, approving $1.2 billion more than the President's request. The Senate Armed Services Committee reported its counterpart bill, S. 1547, on June 5. The Senate substituted the text of that measure for the House-passed text of H.R. 1585. After several days of debate on the bill in July, the Senate resumed consideration of the bill on September 17 and rejected several amendments relating to the U.S. deployments in Iraq that were debated under agreements requiring 60 votes for adoption. The Senate passed the authorization bill October 1 by a vote of 92-3. Conferees approved a final version of the bill December 6, that would authorize $696.4 billion. The House adopted the conference report December 12 by a vote of 370-49.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 13, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA475051
Entities
People
- Amy Belasco
- Pat Towell
- Stephen Daggett
Organizations
- Library of Congress