Analysts: Next fiscal year likely to begin with continuing resolution.

* Despite the existing agreement on topline spending in fiscal year 2017, budget experts do not expect lawmakers to pass a defense appropriations bill before the start of the next fiscal year.

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"I think it's safe to say we'll start the year on a continuing resolution because there's a long track record of doing that," said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, during a recent panel discussion. "It may be a foregone conclusion."

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 set topline defense spending at $610 billion in fiscal year 2017, and the legislation was supposed to provide budget stability and predictability for Pentagon planners.

Roger Zakheim, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted the dispute between hawkish Republicans--who want more defense spending--and fiscal conservatives in the Freedom Caucus who don't want to boost the Pentagon's budget without cutting other federal programs to offset it.

"The reality is the fights [and] the environment on the Hill really hasn't changed at all even with the Bipartisan Budget Act" of 2015, he said.

"If you look at the House of Representatives right now, they're struggling to pass a budget," he said. "There's about a $30 billion debate between the fiscal hawks and the defense hawks.... What that means is that despite having a majority in the House, [Republicans] are going to struggle to put in a budget that even meets the administration's last budget request."

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