Missouri Congressman Graves gives update on defense bill negotiations

Work continues in Congress on putting together the final version of the National Defense Authorization bill. 

Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves is one of the negotiators for the U.S. House. 

Graves tells Newstalk KZRG that the House and Senate are not that far apart: 

“There are some funding differences between the two bills but we should be able to get all of those worked out. It does, overall, it does save the taxpayers about $40 billion in some defense spending cuts.” 

Graves says most of those cuts would eliminate duplicate programs within the Department of Defense. 

There’s no word on whether any of those 40 billion in cuts would affect Missouri, which is home to Whiteman Air Force Base, Fort Leonard Wood, and a Boeing facility that builds F-15 and F-18 fighter jets. 

Graves also says the goal is to pass a final version of the defense bill and get it to President Biden before the end of the year.