Overnight Defense: Trump transition team contacts Pentagon | Bill would ban National Guard bonus clawbacks

THE TOPLINE: President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team contacted the Pentagon on Thursday evening to arrange initial briefings, according to the Defense Department spokesman.

“Representatives of the president-elect’s transition team contacted the department a short time ago to arrange initial briefings,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook.

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“We expect the first will take place Friday,” he added. “As [Defense Secretary Ash Carter] has said, we will do everything we can to help ensure a seamless and efficient transition.”

For more, click here.

LAWMAKERS HAGGLE OVER BUDGET NUMBERS: The top line for the 2017 defense authorization bill has not been agreed to yet, according to Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. 

“A deal has not been reached. We’re still talking about the numbers,” Smith said Thursday morning at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Smith said the Republicans want more money, above the president’s budget request of $610 billion.

House Republicans passed a defense budget plan earlier this year that stuck to that figure, but it would shift $18 billion from the Pentagon’s war fund account to pay for things in its main budget and force the next president to make up the war-funding shortfall with a supplemental.

The Senate Republicans’ plan stuck with the president’s figure, and leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees are now hammering out a final bill that combines the two.

A key sticking point remains how much money would be authorized for the war funding account.

For more, click here. 

Catch Smith’s full discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations here. 

MCCAIN SLAMS HOUSE GOP PLAN FOR SHORT-TERM SPENDING BILL: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday slammed a House-backed plan to pass a short-term spending bill, arguing it would hurt the military. 

“Put simply, this cockamamie idea, this abrogation of our responsibilities called a continuing resolution would shortchange American troops,” he said from the Senate floor. “We’re just going to kick the can down the road for another three months or more.”

House Republicans decided during a closed-door meeting on Thursday to back a short-term continuing resolution through March 31 rather than a full-year omnibus spending bill. 

Senate GOP leadership hasn’t formally signed onto the plan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that there are ongoing discussions about how to fund the government ahead of Dec. 9 deadline, but didn’t go into details. 

The Hill’s Jordan Carney has more here.

LAWMAKERS OFFER BILL TO BAN BONUS CLAWBACKS: Lawmakers from California filed bills in the House and Senate on Thursday to permanently ban the Pentagon from recouping bonuses paid to National Guard troops more than a decade ago.

“The Pentagon has shown a willingness to resolve this issue on its own, but we need to ensure these efforts won’t lapse under a new president,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement Thursday. “We want to reassure the affected service members that our government stands by its commitments, and they will not be punished for the actions of others.”

Last month, the Los Angeles Times first reported that the Pentagon was trying to recoup more than $20 million paid to thousands of National Guard service members who reenlisted at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Under the bills introduced Thursday, recoupment would be waived for anyone who unknowingly received erroneous bonuses.

The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has more here. 

INTEL CHAIRMAN: PENTAGON PLAGIARIZED WIKIPEDIA: The Pentagon submitted information plagiarized from Wikipedia to members of Congress, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said at a hearing Thursday.

Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said on March 21, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work submitted a document to the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Armed Services, and Defense appropriations committees with information directly copied from Wikipedia, an online open-source encyclopedia.

The information was submitted in a document used to justify a determination that Croughton an air base in the United Kingdon was the best location for a joint intelligence center, Nunes said. The determination was required by the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. 

“Are you aware that significant portions of this document that you passed to three committee chairmen to meet a public law were plagiarized from Wikipedia?” he asked Work. 

“No, I did not know that the information in that document came from Wikipedia,” Work replied.

For more information, read here. 

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