US Congress passes $700 bn defence bill

The US Congress has overwhelmingly authorised $700 billion in national defense spending for next year, a substantial increase over Donald Trump’s request, and sent the measure to the president for his signature.

The National defence Authorization Act of 2018 is a negotiated compromise between the two chambers of Congress. The Senate passed it Thursday on a unanimous voice vote, two days after it cleared the House on a vote of 356 to 70.

The bill is some $26 billion above Trump’s initial military budget requests, and about 15 percent higher than the authorization in 2016, the last full year of Barack Obama’s presidency.

It provides for $626 billion in base budget requirements, $66 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations, or warfighting, and an additional $8 billion for other defence activities.

Increased spending is allocated for new F-35 fighter jets, ships and M1 Abrams tanks, military pay is raised by 2.4 percent and $4.9 billion is reserved for Afghanistan security forces, including a program integrating women into the country’s national defence.

It also authorizes $12.3 billion for the Missile defence Agency to bolster homeland, regional, and space missile defences, including the expansion of ground-based interceptors and the Terminal High Altitude Area defence (THAAD) system, which has been recently deployed in South Korea.

The figure is substantially more than Trump’s baseline missile defence request, at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea over its testing of nuclear devices and ballistic missiles.

Lawmakers including Senator John McCain, a defence hawk, praised the bill’s passage as a sign Congress was eager to rebuild military strength. AFP

WASHINGTON: