A Senate panel on Tuesday approved a defense spending bill for the 2014 fiscal year that seeks to reverse the most severe impacts of the across-the-board budget cuts on the armed forces by adding nearly $4.5 billion to cover shortfalls in military training and equipment maintenance programs.
But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said the cuts, known as sequestration, have to be stopped because they are forcing Congress to play "whack-a-mole" with the defense budget. For every program that receives a funding boost, another program takes a cut, Durbin said.
"We cannot continue like this," he said.
If Congress and the White House cannot agree on a plan to undo sequestration, the Pentagon will have to slice $52 billion from its budget for the 2014 fiscal year that begins October 1.
Overall, the bill provides just over $594 billion in spending for the military, with close to $78 billion of the total for the war in Afghanistan.
The subcommittee's bill authorizes a 1 percent pay raise for military personnel and Defense Department civilian employees. It also includes $25 million to implement a program within all the military branches to provide victims of sexual assault with legal assistance and support.
The panel's bill slows production of the F-35 jet fighter, the Pentagon's most expensive weapons acquisition program and an aircraft with a troubled testing record. The bill allows the Pentagon to buy 29 aircraft in 2014, but cuts money sought for the following year to ramp up production of the jet so the military can focus instead on testing, design and development.
"Aggressive overlap in designing, testing and procuring this aircraft earlier in its history got us into serious trouble, and this (panel) is eager to avoid a repeat of these problems," Durbin said.