The House Armed Services Committee passed its version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the wee hours of Thursday morning by a 60-2 vote. The $610.5 billion defense spending bill would authorize $13.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and includes amendments tying funding restrictions to mandates for periodic reports on adversary military capabilities and nuclear concerns. The Obama administration’s budget request for fiscal 2017 included $12.9 billion for the NNSA.
According to the chairman’s mark of the NDAA, $9.6 billion would be authorized for NNSA weapons activities, an increase from the $9.2 billion budget request, and $1.9 billion would go toward defense nuclear nonproliferation, a slight hike from the $1.8 billion request.
Lawmakers approved a number of amendments under the strategic forces portion of the mark, which covers the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous nuclear arms agency. These included:
- An amendment offered by Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) that would suspend U.S. payments to China for Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction activities unless the secretary of defense certifies on a quarterly basis that China has not proliferated nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapons states.
- An amendment from Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) that would block $10 million worth of Department of Defense support to the Executive Office of the President until the president submits to Congress an update to plans on verification and monitoring of nuclear weapons and material proliferation.
- One from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) that would block funding for the extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty unless the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and director of national intelligence submit a report to Congress on developments in Russian military capabilities; Russia’s nuclear doctrine; the extent to which arms control treaty violations threaten U.S. national security; and the impact that the current status of U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure would have on further reductions in the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
- A measure offered by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) that would increase funding by $20 million for defense nuclear nonproliferation research and development through a corresponding reduction in federal salaries and expenses related to the NNSA’s atomic energy defense activities.
The committee struck down other amendments, including one from Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) that, in opposition to a proposed cap on accelerated weapons dismantlement funding, would decrease NNSA-related federal salaries and expenses by $14 million and put that amount toward operations and maintenance for weapons dismantlement and disposition. The committee also voted against adopting an amendment offered by Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) that would increase the timeline for a Congressional Budget Office review of nuclear weapons cost estimates – including life-extension programs and modernization – from a 10-year to 30-year period, something Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) argued during committee debate would likely yield unreliable data and projections.
An amendment offered by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) and approved during the chairman’s mark portion of the debate would exempt the NNSA and the Department of Defense from an executive order that prohibits the government from contracting with companies that violate labor laws. Meanwhile, an amendment offered by Sanchez as part of the chairman’s mark that would strip $317 million from nuclear weapons spending and redirect the funding toward upgrades for DoD aircraft was not approved.
The Strategic Forces Subcommittee previously proposed in its NDAA mark a requirement that construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site continue unless certain conditions are met, and that NNSA nuclear weapons dismantlement funds be capped at $56 annually to avoid funding accelerated disassembly. Amendments previously passed in the subcommittee included reporting requirements on U.S. and Russian military capabilities. The chairman’s mark released Monday said no atomic energy defense funds could be used for contracts with Russia as long as the U.S. maintains a deferred maintenance backlog at its defense nuclear facilities, which is currently valued at $3.7 billion.
The full House is expected to consider the fiscal 2017 NDAA during the week of May 16, and the Senate is scheduled to begin discussing its version of the NDAA on May 9. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that his chamber’s version of the legislation will be on the floor by the end of that month.
The fiscal 2016 NDAA that President Obama signed last December authorized $607 billion in defense spending, which included $12.5 billion for the NNSA.
