Senate Armed Services releases full $847 billion defense bill

WASHINGTON: The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) today released the text of its annual defense policy bill, boosting the department’s procurement and research funds by billions over its budget request.

The SASC version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act would authorize a $45 billion increase in defense spending over the budget request, to a total of $847 billion, at a time when high inflation is eating into the Pentagon’s coffers, the US is contending with an increasingly aggressive China and the Pentagon is shipping weapons to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the country.

In a statement, SASC chairman Sen. Jack Reed called the bill an “important step forward.”