By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers are near agreement on $5 billion in cuts to a sweeping defense policy bill, including "painful" ones to arms programs, to comply with a two-year budget deal with the White House, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said on Monday.
"I hope we get it finalized today," U.S. Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas told reporters after an event hosted by the Defense One media outlet. He said some cuts could come from lowering fuel spending as a result of lower oil prices, but big programs like Lockheed Martin (N:LMT) Corp's F-35 fighter jet might also be scaled back.
"We're looking at them all, and trying to do the least damage, but nobody should be under the illusion that you do this in a non-painful way ... There's going to be pain," he said.
"There will be a substantial amount of capability that is cut because of the $5 billion," he told the conference.
The House is expected to vote Thursday on whether to override President Barack Obama's veto of the $612 billion National Defense Authorization Act last month.
Thornberry last week said lawmakers would trim the bill, but not change language restricting efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
Thornberry said there has been no decision yet on whether to seek to override Obama's veto and pass a separate measure with the $5 billion in military spending cuts, or pass a whole new bill and send that to the Senate.
Overriding the veto would be "the cleanest and simplest way," he said, noting that a new bill could lead to the Senate adding amendments, delaying enactment.
Thornberry declined to name specific programs that would be hit by the cuts now being finalized. He said committee members were working with their counterparts in the Senate and the appropriations committees to ensure agreement on the cuts. A congressional aide said details would likely come out Tuesday.
Obama's veto caused "huge damage" to one of last vestiges of bipartisanship in Congress, Thornberry said, noting that for the past 53 years Congress and the administration had passed and enacted the annual bill that sets defense policy.
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said the cuts to fiscal 2016 spending levels should not cause a major disruption, but the Pentagon faced more trouble in fiscal 2017, when spending would drop $14 billion from currently planned levels.