House panel wants to spend an additional $874 million on weapons

The House panel that oversees defense expenditures proposed a net increase of $874 million for weapons over the Pentagon’s budget plans for the year beginning Oct. 1, Bloomberg news reported.

The House Appropriations Defense subcommittee’s $102.4 billion procurement request included $562.4 million to buy 11 more Boeing Super Hornet fighter jets and $447 million to buy seven more Lockheed Martin C-130J transport planes, according to the panel’s report obtained by Bloomberg.

The full House Appropriations Committee is slated to act May 17 on the recommendations of the panel, which sought a $3.1 billion total increase from the $513 billion that the Pentagon originally proposed for spending.

The appropriations subcommittee also proposed adding $576.3 million to the Pentagon’s $69.4 billion research request. Read the full report here.