The House this week passed a National Defense Authorization Act that authorized more funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs than requested and allows continued work on a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile.
Democrats narrowly control the House, but more than enough of them crossed the aisle during floor debates this week to fend of progressive proposals to roll back a bipartisan defense-funding boost, defeat amendments that would have significantly altered the ongoing, 30-year modernization of the nuclear arsenal that began in 2016 and buck President Joe Biden’s call to cancel a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile.
On Thursday, the House bill passed 329-101, authorizing about $22 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). That is some $600 million more than requested and about even with what the Senate Armed Services Committee proposed in its version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which will be reconciled with the House version after a yet-to-be-scheduled floor debate in the Senate.
The funding is contingent on lawmakers actually providing the authorized dollars in separate appropriations bills. As of Friday, House appropriators, as part of a bill due for floor debate the week of July 18, had decided not to cough up the extra $600 million. Senate appropriators planned to publish their spending bills by the end of July, lawmakers said this week.
During the NDAA floor debate in the House on Wednesday, the full chamber shot down a proposal to undo the Armed Services Committee’s plan to boost authorized defense spending some $37 billion above President Joe Biden’s request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Lawmakers also reached across the aisle on Wednesday to kill a Democratic amendment that would have stopped the Air Force from replacing Minuteman III nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles with new Sentinel missiles starting in 2030 or so.
The House Appropriations Committee’s 2023 spending bill up for debate on the House floor next week provides no funding for the sea-launched missile but would fund continued maintenance of the B83 nuclear gravity bomb, which the Biden administration also wanted to cancel. The House NDAA does not authorize the bomb, but the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the NDAA does.
The House Appropriations Committee’s bill coming up for debate would give the NNSA about $21 billion for fiscal year 2023, which begins Oct. 1. That is about $180 million less than the request.
Amendments mostly easy on NNSA
The NNSA, and the rest of the U.S. defense apparatus, were authorized to spend some $37 billion more than the Biden administration asked, thanks to an amendment that passed the House Armed Services Committee in June on a strongly bipartisan vote.
When Sen. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) came to the House floor with an amendment to roll that increase back, lawmakers again banded together across party lines and kept the extra $37 billion in the bill.
Likewise, the full House voted on a bipartisan basis to kill an amendment from Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) that would have prevented “testing and development of the new, unnecessary Sentinel (GBSD) nuclear missile and instead simply extends the existing Minuteman III ICBM through at least 2040,” as Garamendi himself put it in a summary of his proposal.
With those amendments voted down, NNSA dodged the two biggest bullets fired this week during the floor debate.
There were another 10 amendment votes on the floor that touched on either the NNSA’s civilian nuclear weapons programs or nuclear weapons policy in general. The Exchange Monitor has summarized the results of those votes, and the amendments themselves, below.
Unanimously agreed to by voice vote: an amendment from Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) that requires the Biden administration to provide Congress with an unclassified Nuclear Posture Review and unclassified summary of the Analysis of Alternatives for the nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile.
Failed by the Yeas and Nays, 156 – 270: an amendment from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) that would have allowed a reduction in the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile fleet, the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad.
Unanimously agreed to by voice vote: an amendment from Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) that provided an additional $5 million for the NNSA’s W80-4 Life Extension Program. The warhead will fly aboard the Air Force’s Long Range Standoff weapon cruise missile in 2030 or so and will be the basis for the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile’s warhead.
Unanimously agreed to by voice vote: an amendment from Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) that “[r]equires National Nuclear Security Administration report options for partnering with private industry to mitigate supply chain risks related to the production and integration of pit plutonium production glove boxes.”
Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays, 330 – 99: an amendment from Rep. Rony Jackson (R-Texas) that relieves the NNSA of its current obligation to secure permission from Congress before embarking on certain early research and development for new nuclear weapons designs, or for new modifications to existing nuclear weapons.
Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays, 330 – 99: an amendment from Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) that “[p]rovides $20,000,000 in funding for the continued research and development of advanced naval nuclear fuel systems based on low-enriched uranium.”
Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays, 330 – 99: an amendment from Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.) that “[c]odifies NNSA as the interagency lead on nuclear forensics, making NNSA responsible for integrating the National Technical Nuclear Forensics (NTNF) activities in a consistent, unified strategic direction.”
Unanimously agreed to by voice vote: an amendment from Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) that “[e]xpresses a sense of Congress reiterating Congress’s commitment to ensuring Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon and condemning Iran for its lack of cooperation with the IAEA on the unresolved matter of uranium particles discovered at undeclared sites in Iran.”
Unanimously agreed to by voice vote: an amendment from Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) that “[d]irects the Defense Department to provide a report on a risk assessment regarding likelihood of use of a nuclear weapon as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whether such risk increases as the war continues.”
Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays, 216 -209: an amendment from Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) that “[r]epeals the restriction on funding for the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.”
