President Obama signed into law H.R. 933, appropriations legislation that will fund the Defense Department and other government agencies through the remainder of the fiscal year. Obama inked the bill on March 26, announced the White House. His signature came one day before the expiration date of the budget continuing resolution under which DOD has been operating thus far in Fiscal 2013. H.R. 933 includes some $518.1 billion in baseline defense funding, $87.2 billion for overseas contingency operations, and $10.6 billion for military construction. It provides some leeway for the services to reprogram funds across accounts to ease the stresses of budget sequestration.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
