The Senate is set to take up the National Defense Authorization Act after it deals with a three-month spending bill to keep the Energy Department and the rest of the government funded for the first quarter of fiscal 2018.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made the announcement Wednesday in a press conference after the GOP’s weekly caucus luncheon. McConnell said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was back in town and prepared to shepherd the bill through floor debate.
It was not clear at deadline Wednesday exactly when the annual military policy bill would make it to the Senate floor. McConnell said only that the upper chamber would move on to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) after it finished with the three-month continuing resolution.
McConnell said the text of the continuing resolution would be added as an amendment to a Hurricane Harvey disaster relief bill the House passed earlier in the day. The upper chamber was still at work on that proposal at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
For fiscal 2018, the NDAA would authorize the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to spend up to $14.5 billion on U.S. nuclear-weapon and nonproliferation programs.
The House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would authorize a $14.2 billion NNSA budget for 2018. The agency requested $13.9 billion for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, $1 billion over its current funding level.
Besides setting annual funding ceilings for the Pentagon and the NNSA, the NDAA is also a vehicle for nonmonetary policy, including nuclear policy. For 2018, the House and Senate versions of the bill include dueling responses to Russia’s alleged violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
