This annual bill provides funding for all Defense Dept. programs and activities in FY 2016, including joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs and efforts to stem the growth of ISIS. Defense Dept. funding eventually passed in an omnibus appropriations bill, *H.R. 2029 of 4/24/15, on 12/18/15. See that bill at congressionalmonitor.org for final funding totals of defense programs related to the Palestinians and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Congressional Monitor provides summaries reflecting only those relevant provisions that are altered between early drafts and the bills that eventually pass into law for appropriations bills that do not pass. In this case, the provision dealing with joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs was unchanged between this draft, which passed in the House on 6/11/15, and the final bill. The summary below, therefore, reflects the House priorities on the crisis in Syria.
Training and Equipping Syrian Rebels
The bill would have appropriated $600 m. to the Obama administration’s ongoing program for training and equipping vetted Syrian rebel groups and would have enabled other governments to support the train-and-equip program. Rebel groups with known affiliations to designated terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, or the Syrian and Iranian governments, would be ineligible for support. Other provisions related to the fight against ISIS were largely left intact in the final Defense Dept. appropriations.
See also: Senate Defense Dept. appropriations bill, S. 1558 of 6/11/15.
Last major action: 6/11/15 passed in House by yea/nay vote, 278–149.