2010 Defense Appropriations Background:

HR 3326 appropriates $497.6 billion for Department of Defense (DoD) base budget and $128.2 billion for war costs. Combined, the bill appropriates $625.8 billion, which is $3.9 billion below the President’s request. This amount represents half of all discretionary government spending for FY2010 ($1.25 trillion). The bill includes 778 earmarks costing $2.65 billion.

Dr. Coburn's Amendments:

Amendment 2569 — To restore $294 million in operations and maintenance funding to members of the Armed Forces to prepare for and conduct combat operations by accounting for the August 2009 Congressional Budget Office economic assumptions and reducing funding for low-priority research and development earmarks.  Click here for additional background.

Operation and Maintenance funds are directly related to military readiness because it provides funds for training troops for combat and for maintaining tanks, airplanes, ships, and related equipment such as the purchase of spare parts. O&M accounts also fund a wide range of activities such as civilian personnel management and payments, transportation expenses, health care, and child care. President Obama requested $156.4 billion in operation and maintenance funds for FY2010. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee cut $2.4 billion from this request for operations and maintenance in order to fund other priorities such as earmarks. $294 million of this cut was due to “revised economic assumptions” based on out-of-date inflation information. Operations and Maintenance appropriations are critically important as they are the only appropriated funds that unit commanders (battalion and squadron commanders, ship captains, etc) can spend easily. Other funds such as military personnel, procurement, research and development, and military construction accounts are spent at the highest levels of the military command leadership.

This amendment restores $294 million to Operations and Maintenance funding accounts by striking the part of Section 8091 that the bill reduces operations and maintenance funding.

The amendment is offset by reducing overall spending in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation funding by the same amount ($294 million). Research and development accounts are the source for the majority of earmarks in the Department of Defense appropriations bill. Out of 778 earmarks, 588 are research and development earmarks. Out of $2.6 billion in earmarks, $1.9 billion is for research and development earmarks.


Amendment 2566 — To restore over $165 million in operations and maintenance funding to members of the Armed Forces to prepare for and conduct combat operations by prohibiting funding of earmarks from operations and maintenance accounts.  Click here for additional background.

Operation and Maintenance funds are directly related to military readiness because it provides funds for training troops for combat and for maintaining tanks, airplanes, ships, and related equipment such as the purchase of spare parts. O&M accounts also fund a wide range of activities such as civilian personnel management and payments, transportation expenses, health care, and child care. President Obama requested $156.4 billion in operation and maintenance funds for FY2010. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee earmarked over $165 million from this request for operations and maintenance in order to fund earmarks. This amendment restores $165 million to Operations and Maintenance funding accounts by prohibiting spending on the congressionally directed spending items from Title II (Operation and Maintenance).

Amendment 2563— To require all reports authorized in this bill be publicized and accessible to the public once completed

This amendment requires that all reports required to be submitted by a federal agency within this act be posted on the public Website of that agency for all Americans and Members of Congress to see. The only exception to this is for reports that contain classified or proprietary information. This amendment was unanimously adopted as an amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2010 (H.R. 3183), the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2010 (H.R. 3288) and the Interior Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2010 (H.R. 2996). By passing this amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill, Congress will increase transparency of the both the legislative and administrative process and give Americans the opportunity to be more involved in holding their elected officials accountable.  Click here for additional background.


Amendment 2565 — To require the National Guard and Reserve Component to submit their modernization priorities to the entire Congress, and seek input from Secretary of Defense Gates

The Appropriations committee recommends an addition of $1.5 billion for procurement of National Guard and Reserve Equipment. This is $1.5 billion above the amounts already appropriated for procurement of weapon systems for all the military departments ($108 billion) included in the President's Budget request. The National Guard is not required by the bill to show their list of funding priorities to the Secretary of Defense. This amendment would require that the National Guard and Reserve component commanders submit their modernization priority lists to Secretary Gates for review. Secretary Gates will note the report with approval or disapproval before it is sent to the entire Congress. This will ensure increased transparency of the additional $1.5 billion provided to the National Guard in this legislation.  Click here for additional background.