Coronavirus pandemic could delay Pentagon spending, policy bill, HASC chairman says

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic could delay federal funding bills, including the annual Pentagon spending and policy law, if the outbreak continues to paralyze American life into the summer months, a top House lawmaker on defense issues said Tuesday.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told reporters that House Armed Services Committee members and staffers were moving forward in an effort to ready drafts of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act by May 1. But with no end in sight to the pandemic and with most lawmakers at their homes across the nation, he worries about the Sept. 30 deadline for an on-time bill.

“The likelihood that it slips past Oct. 1 is obviously increasing by the day,” Smith, chairman of the House committee, said in a telephone news briefing from his home state. ‘I think you’re going to see a lot of the congressional action that was planned for this year [delayed].”

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