Senate reaches budget deal with huge defense boost

By: Joe Gould, Defense News

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders have reached a two-year deal that would set defense spending at $700 billion for 2018 and $716 billion for 2019.

Those top-lines, part of a deal announced by Senate leaders Wednesday afternoon, hews to those authorized by National Defense Authorization Act for 2018 and President Donald Trump’s expected 2019 defense budget.

Not all of the details were announced immediately, as bipartisan talks continued, but sources close to them said spending limits for defense and non-defense combined would be raised by $300 billion over two years.

It was not immediately clear exactly how the deal will address budget caps and how much of the defense funding will be sought as cap-exempt Overseas Contingency Operations funding.