Last week the House passed the FY2015 DoD Appropriations bill 340-73. The bill (H.R. 4870) provides $491 billion for the base DoD budget (except Military Construction, which is funded in a separate bill), $200 million above the request.

The House bill also includes $79.4 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) in FY2015. This amount is the same as the placeholder request included in the president’s budget.

House Appropriations Committee (HAC) chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) said the House bill “helps to meet the most pressing needs to address current and arising threats to the security of our nation, while finding ways to trim excess and reduce lower priority programs without negatively affecting our troops or the success of our military missions.”

The House bill funds a 1.8 percent military pay raise that is authorized in the House-passed FY2015 Defense Authorization bill, almost twice the 1 percent raise proposed in the president’s budget request.

The bill rejects the president’s proposals to reduce the cost of military personnel benefits. The House denies the proposed cut in the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), the $1 billion reduction to the annual commissary subsidy, and proposals to modernize and consolidate TRICARE programs for retirees under age 65, including some TRICARE co-pay increases. The House approved a floor amendment to prohibit funding to initiate another Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round.

The House bill also denies the administration proposal to defer a decision on refueling the USS George Washington until the FY2016 budget. The bill provides almost $800 million in FY2015 to refuel the aircraft carrier.

The House approved a floor amendment offered by Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) that prohibits funding to retire the A-10 aircraft fleet that was proposed in the administration’s budget request. This action overturns the decision by the House Appropriations Committee, which had rejected pressure to keep the program alive. However, because the floor amendment does not add funding necessary to keep the program operational, the Air Force would have to absorb the cost by reducing other programs. Another House floor amendment blocks retirement of the KC-10 tanker.

The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) that strongly criticized the House bill’s positions on the administration’s savings and reforms proposals. “Without congressional support for meaningful compensation reforms and other costs savings measures, force structure changes and flexibility to manage weapons systems and infrastructure, there is an increased risk to the Department’s ability to implement the President’s defense strategy,” according to the SAP. However, the statement stopped short of threatening a presidential veto of the House bill.

The House now awaits Senate action on the FY2015 DoD spending bill.