The Republican-led House turned away an attempt to strip $100 million in authorized funding from the weapons program as debate on the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act ramped up yesterday while stripping language from the bill that would’ve put an end date of 2021 on a requirement to keep ICBM silos in warm standby. The chamber completed debate yesterday on more than 150 amendments to the bill, a handful of which dealt with the nation’s nuclear deterrent, nonproliferation efforts or its cleanup program, and it is expected to finish voting on the amendments and pass the bill today.
An amendment drafted by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) would have shifted $100 million in authorized funding from the NNSA’s weapons program to pay for 10 radar upgrades to Air National Guard F-15C/D aircraft, but the amendment was defeated 229-192. However, a pair of amendments by Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) that were adopted by voice vote yesterday trimmed a small amount of authorized funding for the NNSA’s W76 and B61 refurbishment programs. One amendment trimmed $2.5 million in authorized funding from each program to go toward financial literacy training for military service members, while another amendment cut $5 million from each program for a study on caring for wounded soldiers. The chamber rejected an amendment drafted by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) by a vote of 227-194 that would have given the Department of Defense the same flexibility to transfer budget authority to the NNSA’s nonproliferation program that is has with the NNSA’s weapons program and Naval Reactors account.
The House adopted by a voice vote an amendment drafted by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) to provide a $20 million boost in authorized funding to defense environmental cleanup funding, taking the money from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Inertial Confinement Fusion Ignition and High-Yield Campaign. Another Hastings amendment that would bar a study of plutonium disposition alternatives to using the controversial Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility from assessing or discussing options that would move plutonium into Washington State was also adopted by a voice vote.
Language reaffirming the importance of the nuclear triad and the nation’s nuclear deterrent was also adopted by a voice vote, as was a “Sense of Congress” amendment drafted by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) that determines that Ukraine should prevent its defense industries from providing support to Russia’s nuclear forces. An amendment submitted by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) that would force the Administration to create an interagency plan for verification and monitoring as it relates to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and fissile material was also adopted by a voice vote, and the chamber also adopted a provision drafted by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) that seeks to prioritize nuclear security and nonproliferation activities, though the amendment was watered down from its original form and only includes a requirement for the Department of Defense to submit a report to Congress on how it will manage its nuclear forces, nonproliferation and counterterrorism activities. The amendment initially would have also created a principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the form of an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Security and Nonproliferation.
