It provides for $626 billion in base budget requirements, $66 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations, or war fighting, and an additional $8 billion for other defence activities. By AFPMore by this AuthorWASHINGTONThe US Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly authorized $700 billion in national defence spending for next year, a substantial increase over Donald Trump's request, and sent the measure to the president for his signature. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2018 is a negotiated compromise between the two chambers of Congress. The figure is substantially more than Trump's baseline missile defence request, at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea over its testing of nuclear devices and ballistic missiles. Lawmakers including Senator John McCain, a defence hawk who routinely berates administrations for not spending enough to improve defence readiness, praised the bill's passage as a sign Congress was eager to rebuild military strength.

Source: Daily Nation November 17, 2017 02:03 UTC