The Senate appears set to take up the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018 when Congress returns from recess next week.
The annual military authorization legislation — practically speaking, a policy bill that is a suggestion for subsequent appropriations bills that actually set agency budgets — 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 in 2018.
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.
Outlets including Politico and CNN reported Wednesday the Senate would take up the 2018 NDAA after lawmakers return from their annual August recess. Officially, as of Wednesday, there were “no guidance or announcements” yet about the bill, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said.
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.
The U.S. in 2014 said Russia breached the 1987 treaty, which prohibits the fielding of ground-based cruise and ballistic missiles with flight ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. The House’s 2018 NDAA would authorize construction of a missile system within the range prohibited by the treaty, while the NDAA the Senate is reportedly preparing to debate would authorize $65 million for a research and development program for a dual-capable, road-mobile ground-launched missile system within the prohibited range.
The Donald Trump administration said it will decide on its preferred response to the alleged Russian treaty breach by the end of the year as part of the Nuclear Posture Review initiated in January. In the interim, the White House has signaled it prefers policy along the lines of the research and development program the Senate has proposed.
Congress is scheduled to return to Washington on Sept. 5 after the U.S. Labor Day holiday.
