Emelie Rutherford
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is preparing to field a slew of amendments to the defense authorization bill tomorrow, including proposals regarding missile defense, the Air Force tanker solicitation, and Navy shipbuilding.
Committee Republicans plan to launch a partisan debate during tomorrow’s all-day bill-writing session on President Barack Obama’s so-called phased-adaptive approach to missile defense in Europe and beyond.
The minority party members have written an amendment, to the fiscal year 2011 bill approved by HASC subcommittees last week, that calls for the Obama administration to give Congress a detailed plan for the new missile-defense setup. This proposal could receive bipartisan support.
GOP HASC members also will offer a more controversial amendment that would pressure the administration to continue investing in long-range missile defenses “to ensure our deployment timetable matches the threats posed by Iranian capabilities.”
“In the absence of a proven, deployed capability to protect the U.S. homeland in the administration’s phased adaptive approach, HASC Republicans will require the administration to continue to develop interceptors (originally planned for Poland) and maintain all missile fields in Alaska and California as a hedge,” the GOP members said in a summary.
Obama last September scrapped former President George W. Bush’s plans for ground-based interceptors in Poland and radars in the Czech Republic. The Obama team is pursing a phased setup utilizing Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, which uses Raytheon‘s [RTN] Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors, before developing a land-based Aegis BMD capability.
HASC Strategic Forces subcommittee Ranking Member Michael Turner (R-Ohio) is expected to help generate debate tomorrow. His panel approved legislation last Wednesday that would authorize $361.6 million more than the $9.9 billion the Pentagon requested, for a total of $10.3 billion, for ballistic missile defense programs intended to counter near-term threats.
At the time Turner said he was concerned the phased-adaptive approach would not cover the U.S. homeland until 2020, after Iran potentially could pose an ICBM threat. He called for ensuring the administration continues to develop and assess a two-stage ground-based interceptor in case the later iterations of the SM-3 interceptor have technical challenges.
Committee Republicans’ collection of planned amendments also includes one to modify the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review process.
A bipartisan mix of Boeing [BA] supporters on the HASC have been working on an amendment that could raise the price of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.‘s (EADS) bid on the contract to build the Air Force’s KC-X aerial-refueling tanker. Boeing and EADS have been the firms expected to compete for the contract.
The tanker-related amendment is expected to be similar to standalone legislation, unveiled last week by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), that would force the Pentagon to factor into the tanker competition the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) March finding that some European government aid to European firm Airbus was illegal. The bill, which has a growing list of bipartisan supporters, would require the Pentagon to add the cost of illegal subsidies onto EADS’ proposed price. EADS is Airbus’ parent company.
HASC Air and Land Forces subcommittee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he planned to support a WTO-tanker amendment to the defense authorization bill during tomorrow’s markup session.
“If it turns out that Airbus is able to offer a lower bid because they were illegally subsidized, I think that’s something that we ought to look at,” he told reporters last week. “Do we want to send the message that a foreign…country can illegally subsidize their defense contractors and then take bids away from American companies that are playing by the rules?”
The WTO has not yet ruled on the European Union’s counter-complaint that Boeing unfairly benefitted from U.S. government support.
At tomorrow’s markup HASC Seapower and Expeditionary Forces subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) is expected to offer an amendment saying the Navy can retire two ships for every three vessels it commissions.
“There’s now been at least three (chiefs of naval operations) CNOs that tell us that they want to keep a minimum of 313 ships in the Navy, and yet they submit budget requests that don’t get anywhere near that,” Taylor told reporters last week. “In fact, this request (from the Pentagon) would actually take us backwards four ships, if enacted. So what we’re saying is if three of you have said that, I want to hold you to your word.”
One or more additional amendments are in the works that would halt the Navy’s plans to retire two larger-deck amphibious ships and two frigates. Taylor said he supports efforts to keep those ships in the fleet.
“The purpose would be that we then commission seven ships next year, decommission six ships instead of the 10 the Navy wants to, and grow the fleet rather than shrink the fleet,” he said.
Lawmakers have until 2 p.m. today to file proposed amendments with the HASC.
Additional proposals are expected related to buying more of Boeing’s C-17 cargo airplanes and restoring some funding for the Army’s Early Infantry Brigade Combat Team (EIBCT) effort that the Air and Land Forces subcommittee proposed cutting.