House and Senate conferees completed work on the 2008 defense appropriations bill, providing about $460 billion in spending authority. Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the defense panel of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the agreement “achieves a balance” between near-term deployment requirements and modernization to meet future threats. The measure is almost $40 billion more than enacted for Fiscal 2007 and does not include funding for Operation Iraqi Freedom. And, here’s the Senate Appropriations Committee summary.
The Pentagon is readying a slew of reforms to its acquisition practices designed to speed up the military’s process for buying weapons and systems and structure its program offices to prioritize competition and commercial capabilities, according to a draft memo.
