Top military leader presses Congress to act on defense bill

[unhappycamper]

http://kdhnews.com/military/top-military-leader-presses-congress-to-act-on-defense-bill/article_47319342-6157-11e3-9160-001a4bcf6878.html

Top military leader presses Congress to act on defense bill
Posted: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 4:30 am
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top military leader pleaded with Congress on Monday to complete the defense bill before year’s end as Democrats and Republicans on the Armed Services committees reached agreement on compromise legislation to pay for warfighters, ships and aircraft.

Ramping up the pressure on House and Senate leaders, the panels’ top members unveiled a comprehensive, $632.8 billion bill that increases personnel pay by 1 percent, covers the cost of the war in Afghanistan and takes steps to address the epidemic of sexual assault in the military.

The legislation — a fallback plan to a measure stalled in the Senate — does not include a contentious proposal from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to give victims of rape and sexual assault in the military an independent route outside the chain of command for prosecuting attackers.

That plan drew strong opposition from the Pentagon as well as several men and women in the Senate.



unhappycamper comment: The compromise those Ds and Rs negotiated include $81 billion dollars for 100 new bombers and mo money to keep building more Zumwalt-class destroyers to the tune of $5+ billion dollars (each). Our new $40 billion dollar USS Gerald R Ford is still a go.

The Army has been trying to get new scout helicopters forever. Their solution? Ground all Kiowas and use Apache and Blackhawk choppers instead. Blackhawks go for around $45~$50 million a pop (Wikipedia sez $21.3 million) . Wikipedia sez Apaches are "AH-64D: $18M".

If you believe that I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.