President Joe Biden’s administration objected Tuesday to a provision in the House Committee on Armed Services version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act that would ban Chinese or Russian nationals entry into nuclear weapons facilities and national security laboratories.
The statement cites Section 3111 of the H.R. 8070 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which prohibits citizens from China or Russia from visiting these facilities. The administration argues there is already a visitor-screening process in place to scan for threats, and prevent protected information from getting accessed or leaving the facilities.
“The provision would severely limit our ability to engage with Chinese and Russian experts on nonproliferation of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons,” the White House statement said. While the administration is “grateful for the strong, bipartisan work” of the committee, it specifically objected to more than two-dozen individual provisions.
The NDAA is expected to move through both the Senate and the House this week, going through the House Rules Committee as well as the Senate Armed Services Committee. All markups are closed.
