The House Appropriations Committee passed a defense spending bill July 8 that would provide some $1 billion less for space programs than the Pentagon requested for 2012.
In total, the bill would provide the Defense Department with a $530 billion baseline budget, some $17 billion more than was appropriated for this year but $9 billion short of the administration’s request, according to a July 8 committee press release. The bill would also provide $119 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In abiding by the recommendations made by the defense subcommittee in June, the committee’s bill would trim $219.9 million from the $444.9 million request for the Defense Weather Satellite System; $174 million from the $1.74 billion request to procure Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles; $67.2 million from the $974.5 million request for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications system; $57 million from the $86.5 million request for Operationally Responsive Space; and $50 million from the $896.6 million request for the GPS 3 program.
The House Appropriations Committee’s Senate counterpart has not yet marked up its version of the 2012 defense appropriations bill.
