The Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel on Wednesday added $2.5 billion to its version of the Fiscal 2010 defense spending bill to buy 10 C-17 transports that the Obama Administration did not request. Pentagon leaders want to stop C-17 production at current levels (205-aircraft program of record, plus eight more funded in 2009 war supplemental). But panel chairman Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said during the markup session that he believes that DOD “will eventually conclude” that buying more C-17s and keeping an active production line is “the right solution.” The House version of the spending bill includes money for three C-17s. If this mark survives the full Senate, then the two chambers would hash out the final number in conference. Neither the House nor Senate included funds for more C-17s in their respective Fiscal 2010 defense authorization bills. (Inouye statement and Subcommittee markup summary)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.