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Category: Defense

Senate Moves to Attach Cyber Legislation to NDAA

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On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) filed for cloture on a cybersecurity amendment, a move that would fold the threat-sharing information legislation into the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) received consent to modify an already pending amendment related to background checks for military child care providers by including the cyber bill (S 754), sponsored by Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC).

Senate Democratic leaders wrote to McConnell, urging him to separate the cybersecurity battle from the overall fight on the NDAA. Democrats do not support the defense authorization bill because, they say it uses a budget gimmick to boost defense funding. The increase in funding to the Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) funding as a means to increase defense funding but stay within the BAC Budgetary caps has drawn the ire of House Democrats and the White House. The White House has issued veto threats on House NDAA and FY16 Defense appropriations legislation that used the same mechanisms.

As a piece of standalone legislation, the measure advanced through the Intelligence Committee in a 14-1 vote during a markup held in March. The bill aims to encourage companies to share information they have about cyber threats with the government, and is largely modeled after legislation approved by the panel during the 113th Congress.

The Senate has been considering the NDAA for the bulk of the week.

Senate Democrats are being described as “very angry” and have threatened to filibuster the normally noncontroversial, must-pass legislation. Additionally, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who is running for president, has also come out against the bill due to the lack of privacy protections.

Senate Appropriations Clears Defense, CJS and Leg Branch

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The full Senate Appropriations Committee approved three bills now ready for consideration by the whole Senate. The FY16 Defense, Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), and Legislative Affairs appropriations bills were all approved today.

The the FY2016 Defense appropriations bill was approved on a bipartisan 27-3 vote. The bill recommends $489.1 billion in base funding and $86.8 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations funding, consistent with the FY2016 budget resolution.  The bill adds $228.5 million to basic (non-medical) research for the Army, Navy, Air Force and DoD, a 1.7 percent increase over FY2015 levels. The bill also increases DoD core medical research budget as well as congressionally-directed medical research funding by $835.5 million, including $278.7 million for the competitively awarded peer-reviewed medical research program and $177.3 million for the Department to advance its own medical research priorities.

Finally, the bill transfers $36.5 billion from base operation and maintenance accounts to OCO in order to meet the overall defense funding levels requested by the President while avoiding sequestration by breaching the Budget Control Act caps. A similar move was used by the House for both the NDAA and the House’s FY16 Defense appropriations bill. Both proposals garnered a veto threat by the White House.

The FY2016 CJS Appropriations Bill, which provides funding for the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other related agencies, was approved on a bipartisan 27-3 vote.

 

White House Issues Veto Threat on House FY16 Defense Approps Bill

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The White House issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) recommending a veto of the House’s FY16 Defense appropriations bill today. The House is considering the FY16 Defense appropriations on the Floor currently. This is not the first veto threat for a House appropriations bill this year. The SAP cites the inappropriate use of the Overseas Contingency Operating fund as a primary driver in the decision. That concern was previously raised during the House NDAA consideration.

Read the SAP here. 

Defense Money Starts Moving

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The Senate Defense Approps Subcommittee will mark up its spending bill tomorrow, and the full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to take it up the measure on Thursday.

Simultaneously, the Senate will start the week with debate on dozens of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which will be on the floor all week — the Senate is expected to wrap up its work on cybersecurity legislation.  The effort, might all be for naught if Senate Democrats decide to filibuster the bill and have a similar fight to what happened on the House side, when the House considered their version of the NDAA.

On the House side, the Defense Appropriations bill will be on the floor beginning Wednesday. The House passed its version of the authorization bill in mid-May.

 

FY16 House DOD and Senate E&W Appropriations Bills Released

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House and Senate appropriators are in full swing working on the FY16 appropriations measures.

House Appropriators released of a FY16 Defense appropriations measure that totals $578.6 billion. The bill, which the Subcommittee on Defense will mark up Wednesday, includes $88.4 billion for so-called Overseas Contingency Operations account.

In total, the bill provides $578.6 billion in discretionary funding, an increase of $24.4 billion above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level and $800 million above the President’s request. This includes $88.4 billion in Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) funding for war efforts and related costs, which is within the level assumed in the House and Senate budget conference agreement.

The bill contains $67.9 billion – $66.2 billion in base funding and $1.7 billion in GWOT funding – for research, development, testing, and evaluation of new defense technologies. This is $4 billion above the fiscal year 2015 level, and will help to advance the safety and success of current and future military operations and prepare our nation to meet a broad range of future security threats.

Specifically, this funding will support research and development of: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; the GPS III operational control and space segments; the new Air Force bomber program; a next-generation JSTARS aircraft; the RQ-4 Triton Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; the Navy’s Future Unmanned Carrier-based Strike System, the Ohio-class submarine replacement; Stryker lethality; the Israeli Cooperative Programs; and other important research and development activities.

A total of $88.4 billion in war-related OCO funds is $37.4 billion more than Obama requested for this same bill and represents an admitted ploy to appease Republican hawks while keeping within the BCA caps. This distribution seems in line with an effort to try to target the surplus OCO funds toward training and equipment costs that can at least be linked to the actual war operations overseas. Such maneuvers were a strong point of contention during the NDAA consideration and warranted a veto threat.

 

Senate Appropriators in the Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday approved a $35.4 billion FY 2016 spending bill that sets annual funding levels for the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation and other agencies.

The bill would raise funding some $1.2 billion over current levels, effectively matching the increase approved in the version approved by the House Appropriations Committee on April 22. Unlike the House appropriations bill, however, the Senate subcommittee draft puts off debate on the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada that has been blocked for years by Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.