Update on FY 2004 National Defense Authorization Act
May 15, 2003
The House Armed Services Committee completed its mark-up of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (H.R. 1588) on Wednesday, May 14, approving the bill by a vote of 58-2. Floor debate on the House and Senate bills is expected to occur next week.
I. Highlights of the House bill related to U.S. nonproliferation efforts include:
- $450.8 million for the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program (Requested level by the Bush Administration)
- $1.3 billion for Energy Department nonproliferation programs ($27.5 million less than the Administration request)
- One-year waiver authority on restrictions on spending CTR funds on chemical weapons destruction in Russia. The Senate bill (S. 747) also would grant one-year waiver authority.
II. However, the Armed Services Committee made two noteworthy changes to the CTR program:
- $28.8 million was transferred from the Shchuch’ye chemical weapons destruction facility ($171.5 million in the committee’s bill) to the Strategic Offensive Arms Elimination in Russia account ($86.4 million). The Bush Administration requested $200.3 million for chemical weapons destruction and $57.6 million for strategic offensive arms elimination.
- Authority to use $50 million of prior-year unobligated CTR funds in countries outside of the former Soviet Union, requested by the Bush Administration, was transferred to the State Department’s Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund.
The House bill also recommends requirements that the Defense Department obtain all necessary permits from Russia before expending CTR funds on a project, and limiting spending at biological facilities to which Russia has not provided sufficient access.
III. The Committee narrowly defeated three amendments that would have eliminated the above changes.
- An amendment by Rep. Spratt to restore $28.8 million to the Shchuch’ye facility lost by a vote of 31-29.
- A second amendment by Rep. Spratt to allow the Secretary of Defense to spend the $28.8 million on any CTR project, including Shchuch’ye, was defeated 32-28.
- An amendment by Rep. Tauscher to restore the Bush Administration’s requested authority to spend $50 million of CTR funds outside the former Soviet Union lost by a vote of 30-29.