The Senate Armed Services Committee began marking up its Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday morning, with five of its six subcommittees completing their markups on a bill not yet released to the public.
The Airland subcommittee approved a $40.7 billion section of text, which included $31.5 billion for procurement and $9.3 billion in research and development funds, Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said. He noted this was a net decrease of $10.2 million compared to the Pentagon’s request, but he said, “I think that members will find that recommended reductions are minor but fully justified programmatically, prudent, without creating any unacceptable strategic risk today or in the future.”
He noted it was hard to evaluate the Pentagon request and make changes without having an Overseas Contingency Operations budget request yet. But he said overall he was proud of the mark the subcommittee would send up for full committee consideration on Wednesday afternoon.
The Airland text increases funding for procurement of the UH-60M Black Hawk for the Army and Army National Guard, he said, as well as for the AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopter programs and modernization efforts for armored ground vehicles. The language supports the Pentagon request for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Air Force’s KC-46 tanker and C-130J transport aircraft.
Blumenthal did not say which programs faced decreases, only that they were made because of “fact of life programmatic changes.”
Subcommittee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) added that the bill supports modernization of the C-130H and development of the Air Force’s Long-Range Strke Bomber and T(X) trainer replacement.
The subcommittee adopted a package of amendments already agreed to by both Democrats and Republicans. Among the amendments was one by full committee ranking member Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) that would encourage the Army to fund its family of medium tactical vehicles program–an item on its Unfunded Priorities List to Congress but not included in the budget, Inhofe’s office said. The amendment does not include funding or mandate spending, but rather expresses the support of Congress.
Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) offered an amendment related to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered one on F-35 software development, and Blumenthal offered one on cargo unmanned aerial systems–all included in the en bloc package–but their offices declined to elaborate before the full committee releases the bill language.
In the readiness and management support subcommittee, Chairwoman Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) summarized a $165.9 billion bill for maintenance, training, operations and readiness. She said the subcommittee shifted around $795 million from the Pentagon’s request, adding funding for items on the Unfunded Priorities Lists and taking money out of projects deemed duplicative, wasteful or of a lesser priority.
The subcommittee added $104 million to bring the Navy’s public shipyards to their mandated 6 percent capital investment level; $430.6 million for depot maintenance shortfalls; and funding for additional National Guard training, corrosion prevention and the creation of two Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Forces, among others.
The subcommittee took $324.7 million out of military construction to prevent waste but added $219.5 million in to address the top construction needs from each service’s Unfunded Priorities List.
Subcommittee ranking member Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) mentioned an amendment in the subcommittee’s en block package of 27 amendments that would help the Defense Department record its rapid acquisition lessons learned in Afghanistan and leverage them in future acquisition. Another amendment deals with small business participation in defense contracting, requiring DoD to meet statutory small business contracting rules and report to Congress on how sequestration has impacted small companies in the industrial base.
Ayotte told reporters after the markup that she and McCain, thanks to a lot of help from SASC chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), would introduce an amendment at the full committee markup to prevent the Air Force from retiring it’s A-10 Warthog fleet. She said the language crosses jurisdiction and therefore had to be saved as an amendment to the full committee bill. She said it differs from the House Armed Services Committee’s amendment, which used money from the yet-to-be-defined Overseas Contingencies Operations account to pay for the aircraft fleet. It also provides less money than HASC’s proposal, but she said she could not elaborate on the offset until it is approved by the committee–though she made clear it was a sufficient amount to keep the aircraft around for FY ’15.
Ayotte said she didn’t start formally seeking cosponsors until early Tuesday, so she didn’t have a good idea of exactly how many senators would sign on. But she said there were several who have worked hard to save the airplanes, and given the extensive support from Levin, she was optimistic about SASC adopting the amendment and being able to work with the House to reconcile how to pay for the fleet.
The seapower and strategic forces subcommittees held their markups in closed sessions. The emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee marked up its language late Tuesday, agreeing on a mark that would enhance U.S. Special Operations Command’s MQ-9 Reaper fleet, boost defense research at historically black colleges and and support intelligence operations in U.S. Southern Command and other locations.