SAC passes $852B defense bill, breaking budget caps and teeing up budget fight

WASHINGTON — Senate appropriators have put forward a $852.2 billion defense spending bill for fiscal 2025, boosting funds $21 billion beyond the Fiscal Responsibility Act limits and setting up a fight with the House, which held fast to the budget caps in its defense bills.

The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed the bill out of committee this morning. The bill now moves to the Senate floor, though it — along with the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act — won’t be taken up until after the August recess. The SAC was the last of the four defense committees to present its version of the Pentagon’s FY25 budget, which will need to be reconciled across the chambers at some point before the end of the fiscal year.

A summary of the bill does not lay out how overall procurement and research and development accounts fared, but aircraft and shipbuilding programs appear to be a winner of major spending increases.

The bill adds $1.5 billion for a third Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, replicating the Senate’s version of the defense authorization bill. It boosts advanced procurement funds for LPD Flight IIs and LHA amphibious ships by $695 million and adds $417 million for three ship-to-shore connectors.

Notably, Senate appropriators opted to include an additional $357 million to begin procuring a second Virginia-class submarine — short of the $1 billion proposed by the House authorizers but more than the other defense committees.

It also retains funds for the Constellation-class frigate, unlike House authorizers and appropriators who opted to cut all $1 billion in funds for the ship, with Senate appropriators also pouring in another $100 million for the frigate industrial base.

In the realm of aircraft procurement, the bill adds $600 million above the budget request for six more F-15EX aircraft for the Air Force, replicating the increases proposed by Senate authorizers. It also included a boost of $1 billion for eight C-130Js for the Air National Guard and $200 million for an unspecified number of Combat Rescue Helicopters.

For overall weapons procurement, the bill boosts funding by $1 billion for “critical missile and torpedo” buys, invests an additional $1.2 billion to modernize and expand government-owned ammunition production facilities, and increases counter-drone funding by almost $395 million.

Outside the world of procurement, the US combatant commands and operations around the global also received big spending increases — which both Democratic and Republican leaders said were necessary to maintain readiness.

What To Know About The Other FY25 Budget Bills:

SASC breaks spending cap by $25 billion in FY25 defense policy bill 
HASC greenlights draft NDAA, sends $883B bill to full House
House appropriators spending bill report shows key changes across procurement, R&D

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, who chairs the defense subcommittee, said in a statement that the bill would “accelerate investments to allow our military to stay ahead of the threat of China [and] provide certainty for our servicemembers.”

“This additional funding is sorely needed to meet global threats that most combatant commanders described as the most dangerous in 50 years,” Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the committee, said in remarks during the hearing.

The bill includes an additional $1.9 billion to counter Chinese government influence through investment in artificial intelligence and hypersonic technologies, as well as other initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. It also bolsters spending for counter-terrorism operations in Europe by $250 million and adds $7 million for the Baltic Security Initiative.

US Southern Command and US Africa Command would receive an additional $400 million, and the bill also includes $500 million across the combatant commands to integrate AI capabilities.

The bill retains the $300 million requested in the Pentagon’s budget for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a move counter to the Republican-led House, which passed a defense spending bill that zeroed out those funds.

Big Boosts For Service Modernization Efforts

In addition to increases for certain defense procurement accounts, Senate Appropriators also expanded funding for some key modernization programs, with the Navy in particular scoring major plus ups.

The bill increased funds for the Navy’s next generation fighter by $500 million and added $252 million above the budget request for the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear. It also included an additional $25.7 million for two additional Conventional Prompt Strike missiles and $75 million to integrate the PAC-3 missile onto destroyers.

For the Air Force, the committee added $280 million for Next Generation Adaptive propulsion and $200 million for prototyping risk reduction activities associated with the Sentinel ICBM program. Both Sentinel and the B-21 bomber — the Air Force’s two nuclear modernization programs — were fully funded in the bill, the summary states.

In terms of Army modernization, the bill adds $50 million for UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter modernization, $41 million for hypersonic research and test infrastructure and $63 million to continue development of a next-generation helicopter engine.

It also supports the Army’s eight cross functional modernization teams, fully funding the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program, precision fires and next-generation counter-small unmanned aerial system missile development, while also adding funding flexibility to address drone threats, the summary states.

The Space Force would get an additional $1 billion for classified programs.

In terms of broad defense industrial base investments, the bill includes a $500 million plus-up for Defense Production Act investments in the areas of microelectronics, critical chemicals, and hypersonics, adds $600 million for raw materials purchased under the National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund, and also increases the Manufacturing Technology Program by $400 million.