Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) has named 31 members of the House Armed Services Committee to serve as conferees on the House-Senate conference committee that will work to reconcile the two chambers’ versions of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Conferees include Representatives Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), Randy Forbes (R-Va.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), and Rob Bishop (R-Utah), among others.
The House approved a motion Friday to go to conference on the bill, which it passed in May. The Senate approved its NDAA in June.
The House bill would authorize $13.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), including $9.6 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation. The Senate legislation would authorize $12.9 billion for the agency, including $9.2 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
The White House has threatened vetoes of both bills, which direct the NNSA to continue building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to convert surplus weapon-usable plutonium into commercial fuel. President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposes to stop work on the plant in favor of an alternative plutonium dilution and disposal method.