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 U.K. and the U.S. will continue to enjoy access to the ports, airfield, and workshops at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for at least another century, under a deal inked between the U.K. and Mauritius May 22.