The Senate approved its version of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a 90-8 vote Monday, setting the stage for a conference with the House to iron out differences between the two chambers’ version of the annual military policy bill.
The White House has said it opposes some of the bill’s provisions.
The amendments process was tightly controlled by Senate leadership, so only a single amendment related to the National Nuclear Security Association (NNSA) slipped into the bill: one that would authorize just under $175 million to upgrade the stockpile steward’s Albuquerque Complex. That facility is on the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Among the NNSA policies that remain in the Senate’s final version of the NDAA:
- Authorization to continue building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.: something the Donald Trump administration opposes.
- Authorization for $65 million to start research and development for a dual-capable, road-mobile, ground-launched missile system within the range prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987: something else the administration opposes.
- A requirement that the NNSA administrator report annually to Congress on the agency’s unfunded priorities. The report would be due 10 days after the White House submits its yearly federal funding request to Congress. That is supposed to happen in early February, though it routinely takes longer.
The House and Senate conferees who will be charged with creating a compromise 2018 NDAA had not been identified at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Typically, these include the chair and ranking member of each chamber’s Armed Services Committee, plus members of the committee from both parties.
