The US Senate passed a short-term funding bill early Saturday to keep the government running through Dec. 11, allocating $843.9 billion for defense. The measure would largely maintain federal agencies at prior-year funding rates, but it carves out billions in exceptions, including for Navy shipbuilding programs with prior-year cost increases.

Defense Funding

The bill sets aside about $2.61 billion across 20 programs for what it calls ‘prior year shipbuilding cost increases,’ an exception to the spending restrictions in the stopgap. The largest amounts go to the Columbia-class submarine program, at $566.5 million, and the Virginia-class submarine program, at $561.1 million, along with $379.2 million for aircraft carrier refueling overhauls and $324 million for the Carrier Replacement Program.

The bill also provides up to $2.85 billion in Procurement, Defense-Wide funds to be spent as ‘necessary for National Security Systems,’ a separate provision from the shipbuilding funds. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the stopgap at about $1.7 trillion in annualized budget authority and $1.87 trillion in outlays across the 12 appropriations bills it extends.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.