Defense Watch

NDAA Nudge. SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) calls Oct. 6 on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to bring the FY ’12 defense authorization bill to the floor for debate. Reid says in an Oct. 4 letter to McCain and SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that he and White House officials disagree with language in the committee’s version of the legislation regarding military detainee detentions. McCain says the detainee language “was so bipartisan (in the SASC) that after extensive debate on many amendments, and a number of votes during mark up by the committee using the regular order of the Senate, the resulting package of detainee provisions was adopted and made part of the bill by an overwhelming vote of 25 to 1.” McCain calls for the Obama administration to explain its specific concerns. “I do not think that opposition to this particular provision outweighs the importance of this legislation to our national security mission, our troops and their families,” he says about the policy-setting bill for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.

Business Chat. The HASC’s Defense Business panel holds its second roundtable meeting on Oct. 7 in Moline, Ill., hearing from small-and-medium-sized companies about regulatory burdens preventing them from contracting with the Pentagon. The panel, led by Reps. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), tours the Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in this country. “It is critical that policy makers in Washington get the chance to meet and speak with individuals who work in this sector every day,” Shuster says in a statement. “It is the best way to get an on-the-ground assessment of what needs to be done to create jobs and strengthen the American economy.” The panel’s first meeting was in Rep. Larsen’s district.

Budget Bill. The Pentagon now is operating under a continuing resolution granting it base funding through Nov. 18 that is 1.4 percent, or $7.4 billion, below the FY ’11 level of $532 billion. The resolution–signed by President Barack Obama Oct. 5, four days after FY ’12 started–is intended to meet spending caps set in the Budget Control Act of 2011. War funding in the short-term legislation is set at $118 billion, which is the amount in the House-passed FY ’12 defense appropriations bill. The Pentagon cannot enter into new contracts when such a resolution is in place. The SAC, the only panel to write a defense budget since the budget-control law was approved, wants to cut $26 billion from the Pentagon’s $513 billion base budget request, granting it the same funding as in FY ’11.

New Leader. Oshkosh says John Urias is the new executive vice president and president of Oshkosh Defense. He’ll lead all aspects of the company’s global defense segment. A retired Army major general, Urias led the Joint Contracting Command–Iran/Afghanistan (JCC-I/A) before retiring. Before joining Oshkosh, Urias worked as vice president of programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.