Transcripts For CSPAN Joe Gould On The Week Ahead In Congress 20170710

About 696 billion dollars in defense funding and related policy decisions for the pentagon. That 696 million figure exceeds the caps in the budget control act. How will congress reconcile that . Huge question. Hugeumber that is a question. It is 596 million. What it would take to ease the spending cap is a change in the law. 60 votes in the senate takes Senate Democrats. What we know is that if Senate Democrats have leverage in this deal, they are likely to press. Which is likely to lower the defense side of the budget. So the 596 number we are talking about is likely. What sort of investments does and bill call for in ships planes and things like that . What we afford from the white and onfrom the president the campaign trail about a largescale military buildup, we dont really see that in this bill. Aboutite house number was 603 billion excluding wartime funds. Republicans that actually criticized it as too little we do see a number of jets, and other items that exceed what President Trump has asked for. House armedberry, Services Committee overwhelmingly approving the defense measure. It also includes a new branch of the military. The. How did that come about . Joe sure. It is a fairly controversial provision within the bill. Michael rodgers, republican from alabama who chairs the Strategic Forces subcommittee and his democratic counterpart jim cooper have both expressed frustration with the pace at which the u. S. Is keeping up with russia and china and the militarization of space, so what they want to do is break out a new space corps, a force subordinate to the air force but outside the air force. There has been pushback from other members of the armed Services Committee, not just democrats, republicans who say this needs more study. Therefore its itself feels like it is an additional layer of bureaucracy the air force itself feels like it is an additional layer of bureaucracy. It is passed out of committee overwhelmingly. How about when it goes to the house for the same sort of support, and tell us what may be ahead in the Senate Debate on authorization . Typically the authorization bill passes in the house. It gets a wide array of support. Right now as we are talking, i think there is 90 plus amendments that the rules committee is considering. Next week, they plan to meet on tuesday to hear from the house Services Committee chairman and a ranking member, adam smith. And then on wednesday theyre going to, the rules committee that is, they are going to consider amendments on whether they are to be considered on the floor. We have been told to expect Floor Consideration on thursday and potentially a vote on friday, although that is in the hands of the house leadership. Joe gould covers congress for defense news. You can read his reporting at defense news. Com and he is also on twitter. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. This is