The leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) plans to introduce a stripped-down version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) next week as a last-ditch effort to push colleagues to reach consensus on a number of partisan issues while the conference bill flounders.
“This is sincere, but this is only in the event that we don’t pass a bill,” committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) told two reporters, including Defense Daily, Wednesday on Capitol Hill. The plan is to introduce the bill Oct. 29.
The crucial funding authorities center around pay, but must-have provisions in the skinny NDAA that relate to procurement and operations and maintenance include long-lead efficiencies for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, forward maintenance for the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship fleet, operations and maintenance for cyber capabilities and DoD travel support for federal officials, according to a Senate Armed Services Committee flash card viewed by Defense Daily.
A source close to the committee said other authorizations could make it into the skinny NDAA as well, but it is not clear yet what they would involve.
Still, he expressed optimism that the conferees will achieve their goal of agreeing upon a full bipartisan bill for fiscal 2020, which began Oct. 1. Sources on Capitol Hill have said the sticking points remain largely on extremely partisan issues, such as funding the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“We’re at probably 80 percent of being able to pass a bill,” Inhofe said. “Hopefully this will be motivation for them to get to the other areas like the border.”
The NDAA sets spending limits and policy for defense programs, including the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The House’s full bill would authorize $15.8 billion in fiscal 2020 for the agency, more than $600 million under the NNSA’s nearly $16.5 billion funding request. The Senate bill would authorize $29 million more than the NNSA asked for, at just over $16.5 billion.
Authorizers in both chambers approved a roughly $5.6 billion cap in their full NDAAs for defense environmental cleanup, the largest tranche of funding for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. They also both authorized nothing for defense nuclear waste disposal, against the Energy Department’s request for $26 million.
