The Senate on Tuesday passed its fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a vote of 85-13, following an agreement on June 10 to end debate on the bill. The upper chamber left the legislation largely the same as the version passed forward by the Senate Armed Services Committee, approving a handful of amendments out of the over 600 that were submitted in total.
The $602 billion bill authorizes $12.9 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, including $9.2 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation. Senators last week rejected two proposed amendments that would have increased both defense and non-defense spending by $18 billion.
A controversial provision in the bill – which the House version excluded – would require women to register for the military draft.
The House bill, approved on May 19, includes the additional $18 billion in funding for base budget requirements. The lower chamber’s legislation would authorize $13.3 billion for the NNSA, including $9.6 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
Both versions of the bill have been met with veto threats from the White House, in part due to President Barack Obama’s proposed plan to cancel the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a project designed to convert surplus plutonium into commercial fuel under a nonproliferation agreement with Russia.
The Senate and House legislation direct the NNSA to continue constructing the facility, but Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal requested $285 million to shut down the facility and pursue an alternative strategy for plutonium dilution and disposal.
South Carolina’s senators on Tuesday hailed passage of the bill and its MOX provisions. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) said in a statement, “we took steps to ensure the Obama Administration cannot cancel the MOX program.” Sen. Tim Scott (R) said, “Despite the Obama Administration’s efforts to kill it, MOX remains vital to fulfilling our international non-proliferation treaties, and no other viable alternative exists.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) on Tuesday highlighted several provisions in the final NDAA relevant to his state, including one removing the overheard burden for laboratory-directed research and development on NNSA labs, which he said currently results in double taxes for the Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.
He also noted a provision requiring quarterly reports on progress at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, in addition to authorizing an increase in funding for plant operations by $10 million. The Department of Energy’s fiscal 2017 budget request includes $257.2 million for WIPP, while the Senate opted for $267.2 million “to accelerate reconstitution activities” from two incidents that have kept the transuranic waste storage site closed since 2014. DOE intends to resume operations at the site in December.
The Senate Armed Services Committee report for the NDAA calls for quarterly reporting to Congress “on actions taken towards bringing WIPP towards full operational status, including key milestones, status of any capital projects. . . as well as obligations and expenditures of fiscal year 2016 funding.” The Government Accountability Office would then review the quarterly reports, according to the committee report.
The House and Senate will gather next in a conference committee to develop a final bill to send to the president for his signature or, possibly more likely, a veto.
The Senate has approved its version of the fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, while the House failed to do the same. Both versions include $12.9 billion for the NNSA.
