The House of Representatives began floor debate Tuesday on its fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), considering passage of 61 of the 378 amendments filed for the bill. The $610.5 billion legislation would authorize $13.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration and includes amendments tying funding restrictions to mandates for periodic reports on adversary military capabilities and nuclear concerns. The chairman’s mark would authorize $9.6 billion for NNSA weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
The House Rules Committee on Monday accepted 61 amendments for floor debate, including:
- A rejected amendment offered by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) on the prohibition of atomic energy defense funding for work with Russia that allows the secretary of energy to waive the prohibition if the activity “will significantly reduce the nuclear threat, regardless of [deferred maintenance] backlog at DOE defense nuclear facilities”;
- An amendment offered by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and adopted by voice vote to increase by $82.4 million funding for an Army surface-to-air missile program by taking the amount out of the NNSA’s atomic energy defense, defense nuclear nonproliferation, and material management and minimization accounts;
- An amendment offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and adopted by voice vote as part of an en bloc package that would require the Government Accountability Office to list the most common grounds for sustaining contract bid protests in its annual report to Congress; and
- An adopted amendment by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) that would prohibit spending more than 50 percent of the funds authorized for the Office of the Secretary of Energy until the secretary submits the Aug. 15, 2014, report, “U.S. Nuclear Deterrence in the Coming Decades,” to Congress.
House lawmakers last month OK’d a number of amendments under the strategic forces portion of the mark, including proposals to: block $10 million worth of Department of Defense support to the Executive Office of the President until the president submits updated plans on nuclear proliferation verification and monitoring; block funding for the extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty unless military and intelligence officials report on developments in Russian military capabilities and nuclear doctrine; and increase funding by $20 million for defense nuclear nonproliferation research and development through a corresponding reduction in NNSA federal salaries and expenses.
