Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Marks Up FY2010 DOD Bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee marked up the FY2010 DOD appropriations bill today. Full committee markup is scheduled for tomorrow at 2:30 (see our calendar). In total, the subcommittee recommended $636.3 billion, which is $3.9 billion less than requested.

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who chairs both the full committee and the defense subcommittee, made clear in his opening statement the strong reluctance that he and some of his colleagues share in agreeing with the President’s request to cancel certain programs. He used the F-117 stealth fighter and V-22 tiltrotor aircraft as examples of programs that prior administrations had wanted to terminate but that Congress continued to support, concluding that the congressional decisions had proved correct with the passage of time. He pointedly added:

“As we go forward today killing the F-22, the Presidential helicopter, the Combat Search and Rescue helicopter, the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, we do so with the hope that today’s military and civilian leaders are more prescient than their predecessors in predicting our future needs.”

A summary of the bill is available on the committee’s website. The only mention of space programs is an addition of $50 million for R&D for next generation military satellite communications.