The House Rules Committee is scheduled today to begin setting the terms of debate for its fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — a process that will determine which of the 25 nuclear and nuclear-adjacent amendments proposed to the bill will actually make it to the floor later this week.
Casting a shadow over the rules debate, a left-leaning wing of the Democratic Party has threatened to vote against the NDAA on the floor unless lawmakers amend the measure to authorize less defense funding than the roughly $730 million proposed by House Armed Services Committee in June, the Washington Post reported. A united liberal wing has the votes to defeat the proposal, assuming no Republicans vote for it.
The Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the NDAA and more than 650 amendments on Tuesday and Wednesday. Floor debate could start on Wednesday, according to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Of the amendments listed at deadline, eight concern Department of Energy nuclear waste and weapons programs, four concern Department of Defense nuclear weapons programs, and another three address a mix of issues ranging from the legacy of atmospheric nuclear-weapon testing to the still-classified cost of the nuclear-capable B-21 bomber Northrop Grumman is building for the Air Force.
Another 10 proposed amendments dealt with nuclear policy issues that, in some cases, extend beyond the Pentagon and into the White House.
Amendments proposed or changed since Weapons Complex Morning Briefing last checked in on the bill include:
- An amendment to force the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) to make do with $714 million in funding for the W80-4 cruise-missile warhead life extension. The proposal from Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and John Garamendi (D-Calif.) would authorize $185 million less than requested for W80-4. The amendment does not propose redirecting the money to other defense programs.
- Another Blumenauer amendment that would require the Pentagon to study the cost of extending the nuclear-tipped Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile fleet through 2050, and compare that with the cost of replacing the weapons with new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent missiles, as planned. The Armed Services Committee voted against such a study during its June NDAA markup.
- An amendment by Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) urging the White House to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
- On the other side of the aisle, an amendment from Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) that would delete the NDAA’s prohibition against U.S. first use of nuclear weapons.
For nuclear waste, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, watered down his amendment giving governors control over whether the Department of Energy can reclassify high-level waste in their states as lower-level waste. Smith’s amendment initially gave that power to all governors, but was revised this week to grant the authority only to the governor of Washington state: home of the Cold War’s industrial-scale plutonium-production facility, the Hanford Site
Overall, the House NDAA authorizes $15.8 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration: about 4% less funding than requested, but an increase of about 4.5%, from the enacted 2019 budget. The Senate’s NDAA, which passed in late June, authorizes all $16.5 billion in funding the NNSA requested for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, and authorizes full funding for all Pentagon nuclear-modernization programs.
The House NDAA would authorize a little more than $5.5 billion for the defense environmental cleanup portion of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The Senate’s NDAA would authorize a little less than $5.5 billion.
