Conference Version of FY ’16 NDAA Targets Deferred Maintenance

Setting the stage for an expected House vote tomorrow on the reconciled National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) yesterday released the report drafted alongside the conference version of that bill, which would authorize an additional $50 million to reduce the $3.6 million backlog of crumbling infrastructure at National Nuclear Security Administration facilities. The report also retains language in the Senate and House versions of the NDAA for FY 2016 that calls for the transfer—within three years of the bill’s passage—of inoperational NNSA facilities to the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, for decontamination and decommissioning activities. In line with such transfers, DOE would be required to develop a list of sites prioritized for D&D, as well as schedules and total cost estimates to complete the transfers. 

 

The agreement also carries over language from both chambers’ bill versions to provide a forcing function to DOE and NNSA to ensure implementation of recommendations for improving the “longstanding governance and management problems at these agencies,” the report summary states. Thornberry during a press conference yesterday said the House is slated to vote on the NDAA tomorrow. 

 

Meanwhile, congressional negotiations on an FY 2016 appropriations bill remain deadlocked, and Congress is expected to pass a three-month continuing resolution by the end of this week.