House panel snubs Pentagon on defense spending

The Pentagon faces election-year roadblocks in persuading Congress to back cost-saving defense cuts as the military moves away from robust wartime budgets.

The House panel that decides defense spending came out with a $570 billion blueprint Thursday that spares the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, gives military personnel a 1.8 percent pay raise and rebuffs Pentagon efforts to make troops and their families pay slightly more for housing and groceries at on-base commissaries.

The spending bill echoes the broad defense policy bill that the House overwhelmingly passed last week that saves ships and aircraft despite pleas from senior military officers for the reductions.

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