HASC Moves on Budget

A House Armed Services subcommittee today approved a measure authorizing a significant boost in spending for special operations as part of a bill setting national security policy for fiscal 2010.

The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities — the first of six panels to act on the bill — approved by voice vote provisions authorizing spending for science and technology programs, cybersecurity and, perhaps most notably, for everything U.S. Special Operations Command sought in the budget and more.

“We wanted to give them the tools and capabilities they need to do the things we ask them to do,” said Adam Smith , D-Wash., the subcommittee’s chairman, said of the U.S. special forces.