Federal Drive

How Congress can force the administration to spend the money it appropriated

The more bitter the arguments over the federal budget become on Capitol Hill, the more members might resort to anything. Especially if the Trump administration ...

Federal News Network Staff

May 15, 2017 1:27 pm

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Pentagon Solutions - May 15, 2017

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The more bitter the arguments over the federal budget become on Capitol Hill, the more members might resort to anything. Especially if the Trump administration refuses to spend money it didn’t want appropriated in the first place. There’s a law for that. Rob Levinson, senior defense analyst for Bloomberg Government, shared the details.

The Defense Department has acquired a few hundred copies of its F-35 joint strike fighter and there’s more in the 2017 budget. But the development phase of the expensive aircraft actually has not ended. In fact, this phase hasn’t stopped slipping further into the future 17 years after it started. The latest look-see from the Government Accountability Office details the implications. Joining me now, Mike Sullivan, director of acquisition and sourcing issues at GAO.