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Legislative Update: Defense Authorization Bill

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The Senate resumes consideration of the Defense Authorization bill this morning at 10:30 AM after a joint session to hear from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

After up to 100 minutes of debate, the Senate is expected to vote late this morning on the Kennedy-Feinstein amendment to eliminate funds to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons.

Council for a Livable World strongly urges adoption of the Kennedy-Feinstein amendment.

Yesterday, the Senate adopted one amendment by recorded vote and a number of others by voice vote. While the Department of Defense has not yet been renamed for Ronald Wilson Reagan, the bill has now been named in honor of the late President.

Pending in the Senate, besides the Kenned-Feinstein amendment, are three other amendments: war profiteering, limiting contractors in Iraq and hate crimes.

It is not clear what amendments will be considered this afternoon after the policy lunches.

The following is an updated list of major (admittedly selective) amendments offered or considered. The list is divided into the following categories:

Pending amendments

Nuclear weapons

Sens. Feinstein (D-CA), Kennedy (D-MA), Reed (RI), Lautenberg and Feingold have offered amendment No. 3263 to delete funds in the bill for R&D on the nuclear bunker buster ($27.6 million) and advanced concepts ($9 million), money that could be used for research on small nuclear weapons. The Committee approved full funding for these two programs requested by the Department of Energy. These weapons are not needed because the U.S. already has 6,000 deployed nuclear weapons. Moreover, a U.S. decision to proceed with a new generation of nuclear weapons will undercut non-proliferation efforts.

War profiteering

Sen. Reid offered for Sen. Leahy (D-VT) amendment No. 3292 to establish a fine of $1 million for war profiteering in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Contracting out interrogations in Iraq

Sens. Dodd (D-CT) and Feinstein (D-CA) offered a modified amendment No. 3313 to block the use of contractors for interrogations in Iraq or from joining routine U.S.-led combat missions that are likely to result in direct combat. The modification permits the President to waive these restrictions in certain circumstances. According to a May 5 story in the Washington Post, there are at least 60 private security companies employing 20,000 workers operating in Iraq. These contract employees are involved in providing security (including security for the Coalition Provisional Authority) and managing prisons. There is a lack of clarity about the chain of command for private security forces and who is responsible for disciplining employees involved in prison abuses. The Committee bill contains several reporting requirements concerning military contractors.

Hate crimes

Sens. Smith (R-OR) and Kennedy (D-MA) introduced amendment No. 3183 dealing with hate crimes, providing a federal involvement in solving hate crimes — defined involving race, color, religion, or national origin — particularly where those crimes occur in more than one state or in a rural area.

Amendments that may be considered - nuclear-related

Missile defense

Sen. Levin (D-MI) filed amendment No. 3338 to cut $515.5 million for the ground-based mid-course national missile defense, with $211 million transferred to defense nuclear non-proliferation activities (Global Threat Reduction Initiative), $130 million for domestic installations Antiterrorism/Force Protection and Antiterrorism/Force Protection exercises and training identified by Northern Command, $50 million for low-altitude threat detection and response technology, $30 million for defense nuclear non-proliferation activities (megaports program) and smaller amounts for other programs.

Sen. Reed (D-RI) filed amendment No. 3353 fencing $550.5 million requested for additional interceptor missiles until the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) approves the adequacy of the plans for operational test and evaluation of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, the initial operational test and evaluation of the program is completed and the DOT&E reports that the tests confirm that the system is effective and suitable for combat.

Sen. Reed (D-RI) filed amendment No. 3354 to require eventual operational tests for the ground-based midcourse missile defense program at some point — with no deadline — and to establish cost, schedule, and performance baselines, again with no deadline.

Sen. Boxer (D-CA) filed amendment No. 3368 blocking deployment of the ground-based mid-course national missile defense for initial defensive operations before the Secretary of Defense certifies to Congress that the capabilities of the system to perform its national ballistic missile defense missions have been confirmed by operationally realistic testing of the system.

During Senate Armed Services Committee mark-up, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) offered an amendment to fence $550.5 million for interceptors 21 - 40 pending completion of operational testing (the amendment failed 14 -11, with all Democrats but Bayh (D-IN) voting for and all Republicans and Bayh voting against). Sen. Reed (D-RI) offered an amendment to require operational tests, at some undetermined point, for missile defenses being fielded, and to require cost, schedule and performance baselines for missile defense programs. The amendment failed by an identical vote. Sen. Levin (D-MI) offered but withdrew a third amendment to transfer funding for interceptors 21-30 to homeland defense and combating terrorism accounts.

Plutonium

Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) filed amendment No. 3284 to require a report on the efforts of the National Nuclear Security Administration to understand the aging of plutonium in nuclear weapons.

B-1B bombers

Sen. Daschle (D-SD) filed amendment No. 3331 requiring the Pentagon to maintain 77 B-1B bomber aircraft in active service

DOE high level waste

Sen. Hollings (D-SC) filed amendment No. 3347 and 3348 dealing with the issue of the Department of Energy reclassifying high-level waste (earlier subject to a 48 - 48 vote — see below). Other amendments on the subject:

Sen. Cantwell (D-WA) amendments No. 3356 - 3364

Sen. Levin (D-MI) amendment No. 3369

Sens. Frist (R-TN), Crapo (R-ID) and Craig (R-ID) amendment No. 3370

Sens. Graham (R-SC), Crapo (R-ID), Alexander (R-TN) and Craig (R-ID) amendment No. 3428.

Nuclear testing

Sens. Bennett (R-UT), Hatch (R-UT) and Collins (R-ME) filed amendment No. 3403 to require Congressional approval before conducting full-scale underground tests of the nuclear bunker buster.

Amendments that may be considered - Iraq-related

Iraq authorization of force

Sen. Byrd (D-WV) offered amendments No. 3419, 3420, 3421, 3424, 3425, 3426 that endorse the transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government, authorize the U.S. of armed forces after July 1, 2004 only in a multinational force created under a U.N. Security Council resolution and nullify the original authorization to use force in Iraq. One version of the amendment requires U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by July 1, 2006 unless the President requests an extension.

Iraqi prisoner scandal

Sen. Durbin (D-IL) filed amendment No. 3386 barring any person in the custody or under the physical control of the U.S. to be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment that is prohibited by the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, while leaving intact the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

Sen. Leahy (D-VT) filed amendment No. 3387 which states it is U.S. policy to treat all foreign detainees humanely and in accordance with standards that the United States would consider legal if perpetrated by the enemy against an American prisoner, and that all U.S. officials are bound both in wartime and in peacetime by the legal prohibition against torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) filed amendment No. 3391 to require the Pentagon to provide semi-annual reports to Congress the numbers and status of foreign detainees in U.S.-controlled prisons.

Photos of returning coffins

Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) filed amendment No. 3291 to require the Secretary of Defense to develop a protocol that permits media coverage of the return to the United States of the coffins containing the remains of members of the Armed Forces who are killed overseas. Present Pentagon policy, until a recent and temporary exception, has barred photographs of the coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Dover Air Force Base, citing family privacy issues. Others suspect that the policy is designed to hide the painful costs of the war.

Paying for the war in Iraq

Sen. Biden filed amendment No. 3379 to eliminate tax cuts for the wealthy to raise $25 billion to pay for the war in Iraq. His amendment is similar to one he offered during consideration of the budget resolution.

Reporting on the war on terror

Sen. Dayton (D-MN) has offered amendments No. 3203 and 3333 to require monthly reports to Congress on costs of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and other operations related to the war on terrorism.

Iraq stabilization

Sens. Kennedy (D-MA) and Leahy (D-VT) filed amendment No. 3174 to require the President to submit a report to Congress on the strategy of the United States for stabilizing Iraq, including descriptions of the President’s efforts to involve NATO and the UN, to develop an Iraqi security force, and an estimate of the troop requirements for the next five years, including the percentage of reservists that will be required.

Sens. Kennedy (D-MA), Leahy (D-VT), Dayton and Feingold also filed amendment No. 3377 on the same subject.

Tracking injured soldiers

Sen. Pryor (D-AR) filed amendment no. 3264 to establish procedures for tracking and care of members of the armed forces who are injured in combat.

Bodies of service people

Sen. Snowe (R-ME) filed amendment No. 3270 to require family members or designees to greet bodies of members of the armed forces killed in action overseas upon the return to the United States at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Inspector General

Sen. Feingold (D-WI) filed amendment No. 3288 to establish the position of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Investigation of Halliburton

Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) has filed amendment No. 3290 to say it is the sense of Congress that a special counsel should be appointed to conduct am investigation of the Halliburton contract in March 2003 and the involvement of the Office of the Vice President in the selection of Halliburton.

Iraqi sovereignty

Sen. Corzine (D-NJ) filed amendment No. 3304 to encourage full Iraqi sovereignty and self-governance in Iraq, and to require a report from the Administration on the progress of the authorities in Iraq in exercising the roles and responsibilities of full sovereign authority.

Renewal of oversight contracts

Sens. Wyden (D-OR) and Dorgan (D-ND) filed amendment No. 3306 to bar the renewal or extension of any oversight contract entered into by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

Military and security situation in Iraq

Sen. Bayh (D-IN) filed amendment No. 3308 to require a report on the desired United States military and security end state in Iraq, including minimal and desirable levels of policing and border control capabilities of Iraqis in Iraq, the counterinsurgency capabilities of Iraq security forces, the role and place of militias and other ethnic-based, tribal-based, or communal-based armed groups in Iraq in maintaining national cohesion in Iraq, and the level of politically-inspired violence in Iraq in such an end state.

Post-combat operations in Iraq

Sen. Levin (D-MI) filed amendment No. 3337 requiring a report on post-major combat operations phase of operation Iraqi freedom.

Depleted uranium

Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) filed amendment No. 3345 to require screening of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for exposure to depleted uranium.

Iraqi National Congress

Sen. Leahy (D-VT) filed amendment No. 3388 requiring an Inspector General report on the funding and activities of the Iraqi National Congress.

Amendments that may be considered - troop-related

Troop strength

Sens. Reed (D-RI), Hagel (R-NE), McCain, Corzine, Akaka and Biden offered amendment No. 3352 to require the Army to increase its end strength by 20,000, arguing that the Army has too few personnel to deal with the on-going conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate Armed Services Committee adopted a provision permitting the Pentagon to increase Army end-strength by 30,000. The House Armed Services Committee has gone further than the Senate Armed Services Committee on this issue.

Base closings

Sen. Lott (R-MS), Snowe, Chambliss, Dorgan and Cochran filed an amendment to repeal the authority of the Secretary of Defense to recommend that installations be placed in inactive status during the 2005 BRAC round.

Guard and reserve benefits

Sens. Murray (D-WA) and Edwards (D-NC) have offered amendment No. 3195 authorizing a child care benefit to families of Guard and Reservists who have been called to extended deployments.

Reserve benefits

Sen. Murray (D-WA) offered amendment No. 3193 to expand benefits for reserve soldiers who serve extended tours of active duty.

Impact school assistance

Sens. Kennedy (D-MA), Murray (D-WA) and Mikulski (D-MD) offered amendment No. 3201 to establish a new fund that would compensate highly-impacted school districts for DoD actions that severely impact their student population and Impact Aid funding (e.g.: BRAC, housing demolition/ privatization, periods of high, extended deployment).

Survivor benefit plan

Sen. Landrieu (D-LA) offered amendment No. 3176 to include an Survivors Benefits Plan fix in the Senate version of the Defense bill, similar to the one approved by the House Armed Services Committee this week. Her amendment would phase out the age-62 annuity reduction. This provision is a top priority of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).

Reservists who are federal employees

Sens. Durbin (D-IL), Mikulski, Landrieu, Murray, Dayton and Corzine have offered amendment No. 3196 to require the federal government to make up the difference between regular pay and military pay in salaries paid to reservists stationed in combat. This amendment is consistent with the language of S. 593, the Reservists Pay Security Act of 2004.

Family member benefits

Sen. Feingold (D-WI), Murray, Corzine and Dayton offered amendment No. 3400 to establish a leave program for military families.

Health of soldiers

Sen. Clinton (D-NY) offered amendment No. 3163 to develop better policies and information in order to track the health of soldiers before and after a deployment overseas and to improve the medical and dental readiness of National Guard members and reservists.

Concurrent receipts

Sens. Reid (D-NV), Daschle, Collins and Dayton offered amendment No. 3175 to extend concurrent payment of both retired pay and compensation to military retirees with any service-connected disability. Sen. Reid also filed amendment No. 3297 to repeal the phase-in of concurrent receipt of retired pay and veterans’ disability compensation. He also filed amendment No. 3299 to extend the phase-in concurrent payment of retired pay and veterans’ disability compensation to military retirees with service-connected disabilities rated as 40 percent.

Amendments that may be considered - other

Boeing tanker lease deal

Sen. McCain (R-AZ) introduce amendments No. 3441, 3442, 3443, 3444 and 3445 relating to the Air Force plans to lease 20 Boeing refueling tankers to replace its fleet of KC-135 tankers, and procure 80 more. The leasing arrangement is troubled by major problems, and is the subject of several Pentagon investigations. The House would require the Air Force secretary to enter into a multiyear contract for new tankers.

Overseas abortions

Sens. Murray (D-WA) and Snowe ® filed an amendment to guarantee full access to privately-funded, reproductive health services for military women stationed abroad. The amendment would lift restrictions, in place since 1995, preventing American servicewomen stationed abroad from receiving privately funded abortion services on U.S. military bases overseas. Last year, the Senate approved a Murray-Snowe by a 52-40 margin to the Department of Defense authorization bill, but it was eliminated in in conference after a veto threat.

Sen. Boxer (D-CA) filed amendment No. 3367 to permit the use of Pentagon funds for abortions for service people in cases of rape and incest.

Sens. Frist (R-TN) and Brownback (R-KS) filed amendment No. 3406 on parental notification for abortions of children of members of the armed services.

Sens. Frist (R-TN) and Brownback (R-KS) filed amendment No. 3407 to prohibit Pentagon spending on abortions in the military in cases of rape and incest unless the identify of the perpetrator is made known to an appropriate official.

Buy American

en. Dayton (D-MN) filed amendment No. 3197, a Buy American amendment that would strike Sections 842 and 843 from the bill to prevent a new waiver authority from longstanding domestic source requirements under the Berry Amendment.

Sen. McCain (D-AZ) filed amendment No. 3319, 3320 and 3321 to limit the use of Buy American provisions.

Unemployment compensation

Sen. Cantwell (D-WA) filed amendment No. 3159 to extend unemployment benefits and to provide states with authority to wave lookbacks.

Dietary supplements

Sen. Durbin (D-IL) has offered amendment No. 3225 to bar selling dietary supplements containing a stimulant to be sold on military installations except under certain conditions.

Broadcast decency standards

Sen. Brownback (R-KS) filed amendment No. 3225 to increase penalties for obscene, indecent and profane broadcasts.

Military exchanges with Taiwan

Sen. Brownback (R-KS) filed amendment No. 3222 to establish a program for military education exchanges with senior officers and officials of Taiwan.

Restrictions on working after leaving government service

Sen. Byrd (D-WV) filed amendment No. 3286 to double to two years the period of time a retiring government official must wait before working for a company whose contracts the official has overseen.

Radio/TV Marti

Sen. Dorgan (D-ND) filed amendment No. 3394 to prohibit EC-130 aircraft from being used to broadcast Radio/TV Marti.

UN post-conflict operations

Sen. Lieberman filed amendment No. 3335 to require a report on capacities of United Nations and regional governmental organizations to conduct stabilization and post-conflict operations.

Alaskan gas pipeline

Sen. Murskowski (R-AK) filed amendment No. 3374 dealing with the Alaskan natural gas pipeline, the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act.

Sale of arms to Israel

Sen. Biden (D-DE) and Lugar (R-IN) filed amendment No. 3378 to permit the transfer of certain obsolete or surplus defense articles in the war reserve stockpiles for allies to Israel.

Agricultural workers program

Sen. Craig (R-IDO filed amendment No. 3396 dealing with the immigration of foreign agricultural workers (H-2A program).

Gold medals for code talkers

Sens. Harkin (D-IA) and Inhofe (R-OK) filed amendment No. 3397 to present gold medals to Native American code talkers for their work during World War II.

Gas prices

Sen. Schumer (D-NY) filed amendments no. 3417, 3418 and 3446 dealing with the oil markets and the high cost of gas in this country and urges release of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve.

Ronald Reagan

Sen. Warner (R-VA) and many other Senators filed amendment No. 3432 to rename this bill the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005.

Sen. Frist offered amendment No. 3439 to rename the Pentagon the Ronald Reagan National Defense Building.

Sen. Frist offered amendment No. 3447 to rename the Missile Defense Agency and Ronald Reagan Missile Defense Agency.

Amendments (& a bill) considered

Health coverage

Sen. Hutchison’s (R-TX) amendment No. 3152 to provide medical and dental coverage to cadets and midshipmen was adopted 82 - 0 on May 17.

Wartime service medals

Sen. Bingaman’s (D-NM) bill H.R. 3104 (rather than an amendment ) to provide different wartime service medals for deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan was adopted 98 - 0 on May 18. The Senate previously rejected this bill as an amendment 47 - 48, but the House endorsed the position 423- 0.

Base closings

Sens. Lott (R-MS), Dorgan (D-ND), Snowe (R-ME), Feinstein (D-CA), Cochran (R-MS) and Daschle’s (D-SD) amendment No. 3158 to study overseas troop based closings first before dealing with domestic base closings was rejected 47 - 49 on May 18. A new round of base closings is scheduled to be launched in fiscal year 2005. The Pentagon claims that this new round will eventually save about $6.5 billion annually. The House Armed Services Committee voted to delay the base closings by two years.

Global clean-out

Sens. Domenici (R-NM), Feinstein, Lugar, Biden, Alexander, Bingaman, Reed, Akaka, Warner, Levin and Feingold’s amendment No. 3192 to authorize a program to clean up stockpiles of highly enriched uranium around the globe that could be turned into nuclear bombs was adopted by voice vote on May 19. The proponents argue that current policies leave a significant gap between the urgency of the threat from these materials around the globe being stolen or sold and the U.S. government response. The danger that nuclear weapons, or the materials and expertise needed to make them, might fall into the hands of violent extremist groups is very real. The amendment does not actually authorize funds annually for global clean-out and require the DOE to establish an office to coordinate and rapidly remove nuclear materials from the world’s most at-risk facilities.

Lawyer’s fees

Sens. Kyl (R-AZ) and Cornyn’s (R-TX) amendment No. 3191 urging imposition of an excise tax on tobacco lawyer’s fees that exceed $20,000 per hour in order to increase funding for equipment for the United States Armed Forces was rejected 37 - 62 on May 19.

Contractors and terrorist organizations

Sens. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Clinton (D-NY), Corzine (D-NJ) and Feingold (D-WI) amendment No. 3151 to deny terrorist funding and support by closing loopholes allowing U.S. companies to do business with terrorist sponsoring nations such as Iran was rejected 49 - 50 on May 19.

Paying for the war in Iraq

Sens. Warner (R-VA), Levin (D-MI) and Stevens (R-AK) amendment No. 3260 to authorize the $25 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was adopted 95 - 0 on June 2. The amendment included many more “strings” than the Bush Administration requested. The Administration had submitted a less-than-precise request for $25 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

TRICARE

Sens. Graham (R-SC) and Daschle’s (D-SD) amendment No. 3258 on TRICARE was adopted 70 - 25 on June 2. Tricare is the Pentagon’s health care program. The amendment would permanently establish access to the military’s TRICARE health care plan for all members of the National Guard and Reserve.

DOE high level waste

Sen. Graham (R-SC)’s amendment No. 3170 (and a Crapo perfecting amendment) to strike section 3119 and authorize $350 million for cleanup was adopted by voice vote on June 3.

DOE high level waste

Sens. Cantwell (D-WA), Hollings (D-SC), Murray (D-WA), Clinton (D-NY) and Feinstein (D-CA)’s amendment No. 3261 to overturn the Committee vote on a Graham amendment failed on a tie vote, 48 - 48, on June 3. During mark-up, Sen. Graham (R-SC) successfully offered provisions to permit the Department of Energy to reclassify high level radioactive wastes. If enacted, this provision would permit the Department to abandon clean-up efforts of millions of gallons of high-level nuclear waste next to drinking water supplies in South Carolina. This language turns decades of law on its head without the benefit of a single hearing in the traditional Committees of jurisdiction, sets a terrible precedent for other states that are home to either high-level waste inventories or disposal sites, and overturns a recent District Court ruling in which DOE’s attempt to reclassify HLW waste was deemed unlawful under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. The legislation could also affect high level nuclear waste in Washington, Idaho and perhaps New York.

Oversight of contracts

Sens. Wyden (D-OR) and Dorgan (D-ND)’s amendment No. 3305 to require the government to provide oversight of government contracts, rather than having private companies provide that oversight, was adopted by voice on June 14.

Selling missile defense technology

Sen. Allard’s (R-CO) amendment No. 3322, as modified by a Levin amendment, waas adopted by voice vote on June 14. The amendment requires reports on increasing the efficiency and speed on interagency consideration of export licenses of defense items related to missile defense, plus mandates a study on the expedited procedures, The Levin modification states that the U.S. should vigorously pursue foreign policy initiatives aimed at eliminating, reducing, or retarding the proliferation of ballistic missiles and related technologies.

Reimburse families who purchased body armor for soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan

Sen. Dodd’S (D-CT) modified amendment No. 3312 to reimburse the families who have been forced to spend as much as $1,500 for body armor for family members fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan was adopted 91 - 0 on June 14. Many soldiers did not have body armor when they entered Iraq.

Aerial fighting equipment

Sen. Enzi’s (R-WY) amendment No. 3295 to authorize the purchase of 10 additional firefighting aircraft was adopted by voice vote on June 14.

Compensation of former POW’s

Sen. Reid’s (D-NV) amendment No. 3308 to compensate former American prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Saddam Hussein’s jails was adopted by voice vote on June 14.