National Security Legislative Calendar

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May 21, 2012 update

[New information bolded and italicized]

Another busy week just past. The House approved the the annual Defense Authorization bill and a separate resolution on Iran. The House Appropriations Committee approved by the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Appropriations Bill and the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. This week, the Senate is in session but the House is not.

KEY FISCAL YEAR 2013 NATIONAL SECURITY BILLS

FISCAL YEAR 2013 DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

The House Armed Services subcommittees, including the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, marked up or wrote the bill in late April, with full committee action scheduled for May 9 and to the House floor the following week. This bill traditionally is the vehicle for amendments on many national security and foreign policy issues such as the war in Afghanistan and the nuclear weapons budget. The subcommittees approved $1.3 billion for the ground-based mid-course defense in Alaska and California, an increase of $356 million, mandates missile defense to be deployed on the East Coast by 2015, requires NATO countries to pay a portion of the European-based missile defense system, mandates the Navy to deploy12 strategic nuclear submarines and the Air Force's new long-range bombers to be able to drop nuclear weapons.

On May 9, the full committee approved the bill by a vote of 56-5. The bill provides $554 billion for national defense, an increase of approximately $4 billion above the President's request and $8 billion above the Budget Control Act's FY 2013 cap on 050 spending. It rejected attempts to eliminate the provisions adopted by the Strategic Forces Subcommittee listed above. It added funds for the Los Alamos facility, adopted a provision to constrain the President's ability to reduce nuclear weapons under the New START treaty and many more provisions. For a complete summary of major amendments in the committee, click here.

The House approved the bill by a vote of 299-120. First it rejected a series of amendments, including a Lee (D-CA) amendment to end the Afghanistan war 113-303, a Markey (D-MA) amendment to delay a new strategic bomber 112-308 and a Polis (D-CO) amendment to cut missile defense funds 165-252. The House GOP leadership refused to allow debate on a number of key amendments.Click here for a complete rundown of key amendments.

The Senate Armed Services subcommittees have scheduled their markups for the week of May 22 with full committee mark-up the next two or three days.

FISCAL YEAR 2013 DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL

The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee met on May 8 to mark up or write the Fiscal year 2013 Defense Appropriations Bill. The draft bill includes $519.2 billion for the base bill and $88.5 billion for the overseas wars, for a total of $607.7 billion. This amount is $3.1 billion more than the Pentagon requested.

The full committee approved the bill on May 17 with few changes from the subcommittee mark. The Committee added $75 million for missile defense compared to $460 for the authorizers and did not add money to speed up production of new strategic submarines (the authorizers added $374 million).

FISCAL YEAR 2013 FOREIGN OPERATIONS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

The House Appropriations Committee provided $48.3 billion for the State-Foreign Operations allocation - $40.1 billion in base funding and $8.2 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. The total funding level (base plus OCO) in the House allocation is $5 billion below the Senate’s $53 billion total funding. In addition, the Senate shifted nearly $5 billion from OCO (war-related funding) back to base funding. The result of this shift, coupled with the lower overall funding levels, yields a large gap – $9.7 billion – between the House and Senate’s base funding levels. (Source: U.S. Global Leadership Coalition)

On May 9, the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approved $40.1 billion, more than six billion dollars below the Administration request, plus $8.2 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. The Subcommittee prioritizes security spending while cutting economic and disaster assistance and funding for multilateral organizations. The bill zeroes funds for UNESCO, UN Population Fund, UN Human Rights Council and fighting climate change.

On May 17, the full committee approved the $48.3 billion measure. The committee approved amendments to cut assistance to countries that allow Sudanese president into their country; urging the State Department to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization; and limiting funding to negotiate a UN arms treaty.

IRAN

On February 2, the Senate Banking Committee approved “the Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act of 2012.” The bill, as described by the Banking Committee, is designed to place further economic pressure on Iran’s leaders to abandon their nuclear program.

In the meantime, Senators Casey (D-PA), Graham (R-SC) and Lieberman (I-CT) have introduced Senate resolution 380 with 67 co-sponsors to reject any U.S. policy of containment against Iran and to oppose any nuclear weapons "capability" in that country. The House version is H. Res. 568.

On May 17, the House adopted the House version introduced by Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) by a vote of 401 to 11, with nine Members voting present.

On May 21, the Senate adopted H.R. 1905, the Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011. The measure endorsed new sanctions on Iran while stating that while the bill did not authorize the use of force against Iran, it did authorize military planning, capabilities and options.

FISCAL YEAR 2013 BUDGET RESOLUTION

On March 20, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R) produced a draft budget resolution that the Budget Committee then approved on a 19-18 vote. The Committee proposes to reduce last year's House-Senate agreement on a $1.047 trillion discretionary budget for Fiscal Year 2013 to $1.028 trillion.The Committee also proposes to eliminate the sequester (automatic cuts) for the Pentagon beginning in January 2013 and increase the defense budget for next year by $3.7 billion from the President's request. The Committee would cut the international affairs budget by $7 billion.

On March 29, the House approved the Ryan version of Budget Resolution by a vote of 228-191. Before that, it rejected a Democratic-crafted budget by a vote of 163 - 262, a Congressional Progressive Caucus budget 78 - 346, a Republican Study Conference budget 136 - 285, a Black Caucus budget 107 - 314 and a version of the Simpson-Bowles budget 38 - 382. The House budget is considered dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

On April 18, Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) presented the Senate Budget Committee a version of the Fiscal Year 2013 budget close to the Simpson-Bowles Commission's proposals. There were no votes, however.

On May 7, the House Budget Committee voted 21-9 to terminate the sequester or automatic budget cuts on the defense budget and other discretionary programs by mandating about $328 billion in savings over 10 years on non-defense programs such as food stamps, school lunch subsidies and children's health insurance. On May 10, the House approved the legislation 219-199. The Senate has rejected all options put before it.

FISCAL YEAR 2013 ENERGY AND WATER APPROPRIATIONS BILL

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee marked up or wrote the Fiscal Year Energy and Water Appropriations bill on April 18, with full committee action on April 25. The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee marked up on April 24 and the full committee on April 26.
-Both committees approved the decision by the Administration to delay by 5 years funding for the new Los Alamos, N.M., nuclear weapons laboratory’s plutonium pit production facility.
-The House committee approved $466 million for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, an increase of $17 million from the Administration request; the Senate committee approved $539 million, up $73 million.
-The House committee approved $311 for International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation, the Administration request ; the Senate committee approved $368 million, an increase of $57 million;
-The House committee cut $153 million from the Mixed Oxide Fuel program to $735 million; the Senate committee approved the Administration request of $888 million.

Click here for a summary chart.

BILLS COMPLETED FOR THE YEAR

None

2012 Congressional Recess Schedule

Friday, May 18 – Wednesday, May 30: House Memorial Day recess

Friday, May 25 – Monday, June 4: Senate Memorial Day recess

Friday, June 8 – Monday, June 18: House recess

Friday, June 29 – Monday, July 9: Senate and House 4th of July recess

Friday, August 3 – Monday, Sept. 10: Senate and House summer recess