The House of Representatives late Tuesday struck down amendments to a multi-agency appropriations bill for fiscal 2020 would have wiped out a next-generation cruise missile and permitted the Navy to deploy a low-yield, nuclear-tipped ballistic missile.
An amendment from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) to prohibit research on the Pentagon’s Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO) nuclear cruise missile failed on a 289-138 vote. Ninety-eight Democrats joined all but one voting Republican — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — to defeat the amendment.
Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said Jayapal’s amendment “goes too far.”
The defense part of the minibus, which includes the Defense Department’s requested $713 million for the new cruise missile, already funds “a balanced policy” for nuclear weapons, Visclosky said. The Indiana Democrat said the measure would constrain development of the Pentagon’s next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles and prohibit deployment of the proposed W76-2 submarine-launched low-yield warhead.
Separately, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) appeared to offer an amendment written by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to provide some $19.5 million the Navy requested to deploy the low-yield warhead this year on Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines. But Democrats overwhelmingly banded together to defeat the pro-W76-2 amendment 236-192.
At deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, the House still planned to debate this week amendments to the Energy and Water Development portion of the roughly $1 trillion 2020 minibus: the part of the bill that funds the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons and waste programs.
The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, has yet to release any spending bills for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Overall, the proposed House minibus would provide about $15.8 billion for DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. That is 4% less than the $16.5 billion the White House requested, but around 4.5% more than the 2019 appropriation of about $15.2 billion.
The proposed House minibus would fund most NNSA and Pentagon nuclear arms modernization programs at the requested level.
The Defense Department’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile would be an exception. For procurement of that silo-based weapon, to be deployed starting in 2030, the Pentagon would get about $460 million for 2020: more than in 2019, but 20% less than the increase the agency sought for 2020.
Editor’s note, June 20, 2019, 11:10 Eastern time: Rep. Mike Gallagher is from Wisconsin.
