On September 26, 2006, by a vote of 394-22, the House approved a conference agreement on the FY2007 defense appropriations bill, H.R. 5631 . The Senate approved the agreement on September 29 by a vote of 100-0, and the President signed the bill into law, P.L. 109-289 , on the same day. The bill includes a continuing resolution to run the rest of the government through November 17, after Congress returns from its election recess. Also on September 29, the House approved a conference agreement on the FY2007 national defense authorization bill, H.R. 5122 by a vote of 398-23. The Senate approved the agreement on September 30 by unanimous consent. The President signed the authorization bill into law, P.L. 109-364 , on October 17. The conference agreement on the appropriations bill provides $436.6 billion in new appropriations for defense, including $366.6 billion in regular appropriations and $70 billion in additional appropriations as a "bridge fund" for operations abroad and for some other purposes. The total of regular appropriations is $4 billion below the Administration request. The total amount in the bill was a key issue. The Senate-passed bill provided $9 billion less than the request, which, in turn, allowed increases above the Administration request in non-defense appropriations while remaining within the budget resolution cap on total discretionary spending. But the White House threatened to veto the bill if it trimmed defense by more than $4 billion as a means of providing additional funds for non-security-related programs. The $70 billion in additional funds approved in the conference agreement is $20 billion higher than the $50 billion that each appropriations committee originally provided. In floor action, the Senate had added $16.2 billion in emergency funding. Of that amount, $13.1 billion was added by a Stevens-Inouye amendment to provide funds for the Army and Marine Corps to repair, upgrade, and replace equipment used in overseas operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate also added $1.8 billion for border security, $700 million for counter drug operations in Afghanistan, $200 million for enhanced intelligence to track down Osama bin Laden, $65 million for Predator UAVs, $20 million for peacekeepers in Sudan, and $175 million for wildfire suppression. In the conference agreement, the $20 billion added to the original $50 billion, is mainly to reset Army and Marine units. In all, according to the House Appropriations Committee, the bill provides over $17.1 billion to fully fund Army and $5.8 billion to fully fund Marine Corps reset costs. The agreement also provides $100 million for Afghan counter-drug operations and $200 million for wildfire suppression, but does not include the other Senate additions. Key issues resolved in the authorization conference agreement included whether, as in the House bill, to alter DOD provisions that require non-denominational prayer, whether, as in the Senate bill, to promote the head of the National Guard to four-star rank, and whether to approve multiyear procurement of the F-22 fighter aircraft. The authorization bill also approves Senate amendments to the Insurrection Act to allow the President substantially expanded authority to used the armed forces in response to domestic emergencies, allows all off-duty reservists, except Federal employees with Federal health insurance, to enroll in the TRICARE health insurance program with a premium or 28% of the program's cost, and provides expanded authority for the Defense Department to use its funds for security assistance to foreign governments. The House and Senate have reached final agreements on the FY2007 defense appropriations bill, and on the FY2007 national defense authorization bill. Tables 1 and 2 track congressional action on those measures. Earlier in the year Congress began, but never completed, action on the annual congressional budget resolution. The Senate passed its version of the resolution, S.Con.Res. 83 , on March 16. The House Budget Committee reported its version of the resolution, H.Con.Res. 376 , on March 31, and floor action began on April 6. But the leadership halted debate in the face of internal Republican opposition to the measure. On May 18, a compromise was announced, and the House approved the measure by a vote of 218-210. There has been no conference agreement on the budget resolution, however. In the absence of an agreement, on May 18, the House also approved a measure "deeming" the provisions of its version of the budget resolution, including a cap of $872.8 billion on total discretionary spending, to be in effect for purposes of subsequent House action. The "deeming" resolution was included in the rule ( H.Res. 818 ) governing debate on the FY2007 Interior and Environment appropriations bill ( H.R. 5386 ). The Senate attached a "deeming" measure to the FY2006 supplemental appropriations bill ( H.R. 4939 ). In action on related legislation, the House passed the Military Quality of Life/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, H.R. 5385 , on May 19. The bill provides $58 billion for the Department of Defense, including funds for military construction and family housing, for some military personnel accounts, for some military operation and maintenance accounts, and for the defense health program. In the Senate, the military personnel, O&M, and defense health funds are provided in the regular defense appropriations bill, and the military construction and family housing funds are provided in the Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. That bill, also H.R. 5385 , was reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 20, but has not been taken up on the Senate floor. As reported, it provides $16.3 billion for Department of Defense military construction and family housing. The following series of tables show congressional action on defense budget. Additional details will be added as congressional action proceeds. Table 3 shows congressional action on the FY2007 appropriations bills that provide funding for the Department of Defense. These are (1) the defense appropriations bills in the House and the Senate ( H.R. 5631 ) and (2) the military quality of life/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill in the House and the military construction/VA bill in the Senate (both H.R. 5385 ). The House military quality of life/VA appropriations bill includes about $42 billion for Military Personnel and for Operation and Maintenance accounts that are provided in the defense appropriations bill in the Senate. Table 3 shows the total in these accounts by bill. The conference agreement on the defense appropriation bill this year follows the organization of the House-passed bill – last year, the conference followed the Senate. So the totals shown in Table 3 for the conference agreement do not include amounts for military personnel, for operation and maintenance, and for defense health that will be provided in the military quality of live/VA appropriations bill, when it is completed. Please note that while this table shows all appropriations for the Department of Defense, it does not show funding provided in other appropriations bills for defense-related activities of other agencies. The largest amount of non-DOD defense-related funding is for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, for which the Administration has requested about $17 billion in FY2007. Funding for DOE defense programs is provided in the annual energy and water appropriations bill ( H.R. 5427 ). Other amounts for national defense not show here include FBI counterintelligence activities financed in appropriations for the Department of Justice and smaller amounts in other bills. Table 4 shows congressional action on the House and Senate versions of the FY2007 defense authorization bill by title. It is important to note that the authorization bill does not directly provide funds for most defense programs (the exception being some mandatory programs). Rather, it authorizes the appropriation of funds. In the appropriations bills, Congress may provide more than, less than, or the same as the amounts authorized to be appropriated, and it may provide funds for programs never specifically mentioned in authorization bills or associated report language. Table 5 shows congressional recommendations for defense budget authority and outlays in versions of the annual budget resolution— S.Con.Res. 83 as passed by the Senate and H.Con.Res. 376 as passed by the House. These amounts are not binding on the appropriations committees, however. Table 6 shows the Administration's FY2007 national defense request, by appropriations title, separating discretionary and mandatory amounts. The total for FY2006 includes a $70 billion placeholder for supplemental appropriations. The final FY2006 supplemental appropriations bill, however, H.R. 4239 , which was signed into law on June 15, P.L. 109-234 , provides $67.7 billion for national defense programs, $2.3 billion less. The total for FY2007 includes a $50 billion placeholder for a budget amendment for overseas operations. If the $50 billion placeholder is removed, the total discretionary request for the Department of Defense is $439.3 billion. This was the amount most often referred to in DOD press releases as the FY2007 Department of Defense request when the budget was released in February. On February 6, 2006, the White House formally released its FY2007 federal budget request to Congress. The request included $513.0 billion in new budget authority for national defense in FY2007, of which $50 billion was a placeholder for a later budget amendment to cover costs of overseas military operations, $441.2 billion was for regular operations of the Department of Defense (DOD), $17.0 billion was for Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons programs, and $4.8 billion was for defense-related activities of other agencies (see Table 6 above). The $50 billion placeholder is not intended to cover the full costs of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in FY2007.