Last Supplemental For Defense Spending Halfway There

The House of Representatives passed the 2009 wartime supplemental bill on Tuesday. Now it will go to the Senate for approval. If there are substantial differences then there will be a conference with a new round of voting. Lastly it needs to be signed by President Obama. There is no real chance that he will not sign it despite its myriad problems.

As previously discussed the main issue with it is all of the non-military spending added. There are also things in it that the President and the Pentagon did not request. Because this is considered a crucial, almost emergency bill it is easy for Congressmen and Senators to attach things to it knowing that in the end it will be passed and signed into law.

This means that this bill started at about $84 billion of mainly military and support to the Afghanistan and Iraqi governments. The final version passed by the House is up to $106 billion. The bulk of that addition was for swine flu funding and money for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to use to help other countries. Due to this late addition many Republicans in the House refused to vote for it. They have concerns as to how the IMF will use the money.

Even the defense part was over four billion dollars more then asked for. This includes funding for MRAP vehicles, training for Afghani and Pakistani forces as well as money to pay bonuses to those service members extended involuntarily on active duty. The House also added eight C-17 and seven C-130 transport aircraft not requested by the military.

Interestingly enough over fifty Democratic House members voted against it as it does not clearly specify an end to the activity in Afghanistan. The bill had become a catch all for various ideas and programs not really related to the original purpose.

The Senate will probably move quickly and vote on a bill very similar. This means that a conference will be short and probably just add any new items the Senate wants and accept any dollar and quantity changes coming out of that chamber. Obama will have a very hard time not signing it even with all of the additional money and items not really wanted.