On December 15, both the House and the Senate approved a conference agreement on theLabor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, H.R. 4577 , which also incorporates otherappropriations measures. The bill makes an across-the-board cut of about $520 million in FY2001defense funding but also provides about $300 million more for some defense programs. Earlier, onOctober 6, House and Senate conferees announced an agreement on the FY2001 defenseauthorization bill, H.R. 4205 / S. 2549 . The House approved theagreement by a vote of 382-31 on October 11, and the Senate approved the measure by a vote of90-3 on October 11. By a vote of 84-9, the Senate waived a point of order that the cost of the bill'sretiree health care provisions exceeds limits on long-term mandatory spending. The Presidentsigned the bill into law ( P.L. 106-398 ) on October 30. On August 9, the President signed theFY2001 defense appropriations bill, H.R. 4576 , into law ( P.L. 106-259 ), and on July13, the President signed the FY2001 military construction appropriations bill, H.R. 4425 ( P.L. 106-246 ). The military construction bill incorporates FY2000 supplementalappropriations for military operations in Kosovo and elsewhere, for counterdrug assistance toColombia, and for some other defense programs. Congress provides funding for national defense programs in several annual appropriationsmeasures, the largest of which is the defense appropriations bill. Congress also acts every year ona national defense authorization bill, which authorizes programs funded in all of the regularappropriations measures. The authorization bill addresses defense programs in almost precisely thesame level of detail as the defense-related appropriations, and congressional debate about majordefense policy and funding issues usually occurs mainly in action on the authorization. Because thedefense authorization and appropriations bills are so closely related, this report trackscongressional action on both measures. The annual defense appropriations bill provides funds for military activities of the Department of Defense (DOD) -- including pay and benefits of military personnel, operation and maintenanceof weapons and facilities, weapons procurement, and research and development -- and for otherpurposes. Most of the funding in the bill is for programs administered by the Department ofDefense, though the bill also provides (1) relatively small, unclassified amounts for the CentralIntelligence Agency retirement fund and intelligence community management, (2) classified amountsfor national foreign intelligence activities administered by the CIA and by other agencies as well asby DOD, and (3) very small amounts for some other agencies. Five other appropriations bills alsoprovide funds for national defense activities of DOD and other agencies including: the military construction appropriations bill, which finances construction of military facilities and construction and operation of military family housing, all administered byDOD; the energy and water development appropriations bill, which funds atomicenergy defense activities administered by the Department of Energy; the VA-HUD-independent agencies appropriations bill, which finances civil defense activities administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, activities of theSelective Service System, and support for National Science Foundation Antarctic research; the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill, which funds national security-related activities of the FBI, the Department of Justice, and some other agencies; and the transportation appropriations bill, which funds some defense-related activities of the Coast Guard. The Administration's FY2001 budget includes $305.4 billion for the national defense budget function, of which $284.3 billion is requested in the defense appropriations bill. See Table A4 inthe appendix for a breakdown of the Administration national defense budget function request byappropriations bill. Action on major defense funding bills is coming to a close this year. So far, the President hassigned into law the FY2001 defense appropriations, the FY2001 military construction appropriations,and, as part of the military construction bill, FY2000 supplemental appropriations. A conferenceagreement on the annual defense authorization has not yet been reached, but it is expectedimminently. Action on major defense bills to date includes the following: FY2001 congressional budget resolution: The House Budget Committee marked up its version of the annual budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 290 , on March 14,and the full House passed a modified version on March 23. The House measure recommended$306.3 billion in budget authority ($307.3 billion in discretionary funding) for the national defensebudget function. The Senate Budget Committee ordered its version of the bill, S.Con.Res. 101 , to be reported on March 30, recommending $305.8 billion for nationaldefense. On the floor, the Senate approved an amendment that added $4 billion to the total, and theSenate passed the amended measure, recommending $309.8 billion for defense, on April 7. On April13, both the House and the Senate approved a conference agreement on the budget resolution whichincludes $309.9 billion for national defense. FY2000 supplemental appropriations: By early March, the Administration had requested $5.3 billion of FY2000 supplemental appropriations, including $2.3 billion for theDepartment of Defense, of which $2.0 billion was for peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and $98million for support of counter-drug activities in Colombia. On March 9, the House AppropriationsCommittee marked up a bill, H.R. 3908 , that provided $9.1 billion in supplementalappropriations, including $5.0 billion for DOD. The additional money for DOD included $1.6billion for petroleum price increases and $854 million for increased defense health program costs. On March 29, the full House approved an amendment to the bill that provided an additional $4billion for defense programs, all of which was made available through September 30, 2001. TheSenate, however, declined to consider the bill and decided to fold supplemental appropriations forFY2000 into regular FY2001 appropriations bills. Under the conference agreement on the FY2001budget resolution, the extra $4 billion that the House provided for defense could be incorporated intothe regular FY2001 defense appropriations bills. On June 29, the House, and on June 30, the Senate,approved a conference agreement on the FY2001 military construction appropriations bills, H.R. 4425 , which includes supplemental appropriations for military operations inKosovo and elsewhere and for counterdrug assistance to Colombia, and the President signed themeasure into law ( P.L. 106-246 ) on July 13. For a table showing congressional action on DODprograms in the supplemental, see Table A8 in the Appendix. For a full discussion of thesupplemental, see CRS Report RL30457(pdf) , Supplemental Appropriations for FY2000: Plan Colombia,Kosovo, Foreign Debt Relief, Home Energy Assistance, and Other Initiatives , by [author name scrubbed] etal. House version of the defense authorization bill: On May 10, the House Armed Services Committee marked up and ordered to be reported its version of the annual defenseauthorization bill, H.R. 4205 . The bill was considered on the floor on May 17 and 18,and the House approved the measure on May 18. House and Senate conferees announced anagreement on the measure on October 6, and the House approved the conference report by a vote of382-31 on October 11, and the Senate approved it on October 12 by a vote of 90-3. The Presidentsigned the bill into law on October 30 ( P.L. 106-398 ). Senate version of the defense authorization bill: On May 10, the Senate Armed Services Committee marked up and ordered to be reported its version of the FY2001 defenseauthorization bill, S. 2549 . Floor action began on June 6, and the Senate approved themeasure on July 13. House version of the defense appropriations bill: On May 11, the HouseDefense Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its version of the FY2001 defense appropriationsbill ( H.R. 4576 ), and on May 25, the full Appropriations Committee completed itsmarkup ( H.Rept. 106-644 ). The House approved the measure on June 7. A conference agreementon the bill was filed on July 17 ( H.Rept. 106-754 ), the House approved the agreement on July 19,the Senate approved it on July 27, and the President signed the bill into law on August 9 ( P.L.106-259 ). Senate version of the defense appropriations bill: The Senate Appropriations Committee reported its version of the FY2001 Defense appropriations bill, S. 2593 on May 18. The Senate began to consider the bill on the floor on June 8 whenit took up the House version, H.R. 4576 and substituted the text of S. 2593 . The Senate approved the measure on June 13. Military construction appropriations: On May 9, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees marked up different versions of the military construction appropriationsbill - S. 2521 in the Senate and H.R. 4425 in the House. The House passedthe bill on May 16, and the Senate on May 18. The House agreed to a conference report on the billon June 29, and the Senate on June 30. The President signed the bill into law ( P.L. 106-246 ) on July13. For a full discussion, see CRS Report RL30510 , Appropriations for FY2001: MilitaryConstruction , by Mary Tyszkiewicz. Table 1. Status of FY2001 Defense Appropriations The Administration requested a total of $305.4 billion in new budget authority for the national defense budget function in FY2001.