After two days of debate, the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the House floor mainly on party lines at 216-212.
The defense policy bill, which also sets spending caps for the appropriations bills, would authorize $32.76 billion in funding for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
During debate Tuesday and Wednesday, a couple of nuclear amendments passed through in a series of en bloc amendments, or a series of usually uncontroversial amendments grouped together. One amendment by Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) would designate NNSA to “lead the technical nuclear forensics efforts of the United States.”
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) had an amendment passed that would direct the Defense Secretary and NNSA’s administrator to give preference to sourcing uranium and other critical minerals in the United States before seeking foreign sources.
Finally, Rep. Emily Randall (D-Wash.) had an amendment pass that would extend the deadline for having an annual assessment of cyber resilience of the nuclear command and control system from Dec. 31, 2032 to Dec. 31, 2035.