HOUSE PANEL SET TO MARK UP DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

The House Armed Services Committee will mark up its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, and Republicans are expected to unveil language that would limit the Obama Administration’s ability to implement the New START Treaty. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the panel’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee, said last month that the panel would draft language withholding funding for treaty implementation unless President Obama submitted plans required in the FY 2012 Defense Authorization Act and promised that any future reductions would not come outside the treaty or Congressional authorization process. Because the language is likely to be controversial and opposed by Democrats on the panel, Republicans are waiting until the full committee markup to roll out the language, along with other potentially controversial provisions. With a Congressionally mandated panel studying National Nuclear Security Administration governance, the committee is not expected to take as dramatic an approach in reforming the agency as it did last year, though the committee could still try to move some less ambitious reform efforts. The markup will take place starting at 10 a.m. in Room 2118 of the Rayburn House Office Building.