Off the wire
• Spotlight: Closer ties with China can alter LatAm's economic course: experts  • China to gas up energy mix with clean coalbed methane  • Brazil's Temer thanks Colombia for support after plane crash  • CSRC approves IPO applications of 13 firms  • Lowry hits six 3s as Raptors dominate Lakers  • Lock-up shares worth 30.41 bln yuan eligible for trade  • Feature: Santiago de Cuba prepares for Fidel Castro's funeral  • Obama blocks Chinese company's takeover of Aixtron's U.S. business  • Feature: Chinese company changes life of Tanzanian salesman  • UN chief lauds peaceful presidential elections in Gambia  
You are here: 　 Home

U.S. House of Representatives passes 611 bln USD defense bill

Xinhua, December 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that allowed 611 billion U.S. dollars' defense budget for 2017.

The bill, which gave an extra 9 billion dollars than the original request by President Barack Obama, was passed in a 375-34 vote.

The extra money would cover a 2.1 percent pay raise for troops, 0.5 percent higher than requested, 16,000 and 3,000 more personnel for the army and the marine corps, respectively.

The upper chamber of Congress is expected to vote on the paper next week and send it to Obama for ratification, a White House spokesman said. The president will decide whether he approves the revision after studying the fine print.

Despite the extra money, House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry thought the budget was not enough.

"My great hope is that the new incoming administration will submit to Congress a supplemental request that can really get about the job of rebuilding the military, which is so essential," he said.

Within the budget, Base Budget, which finances running costs of the U.S. military, is 543.4 billion dollars, while 59.5 billion dollars are marked Overseas Contingency Operations Budget, also known as the war budget.

The overall budget showed a slight hike from the 607 billion dollars budget provided for 2016. Endi