By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Last week, Congressman Mo Brooks (R) from Huntsville voted in favor of H.R. 2397 the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which successfully passed the House.
Congressman Brooks said in a written statement, “I am pleased to support H.R. 2397 the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which passed the House this evening. This Department of Defense Appropriations Act eliminates the funding deficit that caused sequestration and furloughs of civilian defense workers, and is $26 billion more than the FY13 sequester. The bill restores defense funding to near pre-sequestration levels, halting furloughs that are harming our military communities and stopping cuts that undermine our national security. All told, this bill provides a base spending level of $512.5 billion. The funding increase for defense is achieved by cutting funding for lesser priority items, not tax increases or debt increases.”
Representative Brooks continued, “It is now up to the Senate to pass the Department of Defense Appropriations Act in its current form so that our nation’s defenders can go back to doing what they do best: keeping us safe. It is my hope that the Senate will act quickly to approve this legislation and give our defense workers the relief they so desperately need. For more than two years, I have been fighting against sequestration. It’s time to end the pain for defense workers, and restore funding for vital national security.”
The Department of Defense Appropriations Act that passed the House restores defense funding to near pre-sequestration levels. If the bill is passed by the U.S. Senate in its current form, the bill will end civilian defense furloughs.
Defense related industries are major employers in Alabama, particularly in the Huntsville area which Rep. Brooks represents. Automatic sequestration cuts went into effect earlier in the year because the Republican controlled U.S. House and the Democratic controlled U.S. Senate were unable to come to any agreement on how much money that the country should spend on defense or virtually anything else. Thousands of defense workers have been furloughed as part of sequestration.
Congressman Brooks is a member of the House Armed Services Subcommittees on Strategic Forces and Oversight and Investigations. He is also the founder and Co-Chair of the Army Aviation Caucus.
Representative Brooks is serving in his second term in the U.S. Congress.
