HOUSE STRATEGIC FORCES PANEL OKS ITS VERSION OF FY 2014 NDAA

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee easily cleared its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act yesterday, with unanimous support from lawmakers on the panel. The subcommittee’s portion of the bill sets policy and authorizes funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Text of the subcommittee’s mark was released Tuesday, outlining a host of policy changes directed at the NNSA, and lawmakers typically wait until the full House Armed Services Committee markup of the bill to offer amendments. However, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), the former ranking member of the panel, threatened to offer an amendment that would kill the Pentagon’s troubled Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program, briefly sidetracking the 7-minute 45-second markup, but she ultimately backed off those plans and suggested she would offer the amendment during the full committee hearing June 5.