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You are here: Home / Archives for Security Spending / Pentagon Budget

August 14, 2014

Future of OCO Still Uncertain

Inside Defense reports from behind a paywall that the Defense Department will deliver its “migration guidance,” setting out a plan for the services to begin to move war funds back into the base budget, in the fall.

Having missed a July deadline promised to the Government Accountability Office, a DOD spokesman said “This will be a multiyear process that will be refined as [the] Department gets a clearer picture of enduring missions for the theater, as well as the criteria and scope of the future overseas contingency operations budgets.”

The Pentagon plans to have the guidance to the services in time for crafting of the FY16 budget request.

DOD’s overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget comes in at $58.6 billion for FY15, $26.7 billion less than enacted the previous year. But the fund has received increased criticism in Congress as U.S. involvement in the wars has drawn down, largely because it allows the Pentagon to work around the budget caps set forth in the Budget Control Act.

In response to the administration’s OCO request, which came to Congress late, on June 26, Rep. Adam Smith noted that, “Sequestration doesn’t make any sense. However, none of those other areas of our government have an OCO. … The justification for that spending is something that Congress is going to need to hear.”

Rep. Tammy Duckworth went a step further saying that, “It seems this is just becoming another slush fund … without accountability.”

But recent developments in Iraq might throw a wrench into efforts to draw the money down, as the administration continues to pull from the budget for operations overseas. The White House argues that the fund, particularly a new portion aimed at counterterrorism operations, is important to have in case of emergency.

But some members of Congress disagree. “There’s always going to be something unanticipated in the defense world,” Smith said in the same interview. “You try and budget within the parameters of that, and not have a separate budget for ‘if something comes up.’”

Posted in: Nukes of Hazard blog, Pentagon Budget, Security Spending

June 17, 2014

Summary of the House Appropriations Committee version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Appropriations Bill

By Laicie Heeley, Kingston Reif and Brenna Gautam On June 10, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the Fiscal Year FY) 2015 Defense Appropriations Bill, which includes $571 billion in total funding. Although this is an increase from the 2015 requested budget amount, it reflects an overall $1.7 billion decrease in funding from […]

Posted in: Factsheets & Analysis on Nuclear Weapons Spending, Factsheets & Analysis on Pentagon Budget, Issue Center, Nuclear Weapons Spending, Pentagon Budget

May 22, 2014

Amendments To Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the House

Below is a summary of amendments on nuclear weapons, missile defense, and related issues submitted for consideration by the House to the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), or H.R. 4435. The bill was debated this week on the House floor and passed this morning by a vote of 325-98.

You can read our early reaction to the full bill here.

Over on the Senate side, the Senate Armed Services Committee has completed its (closed) markup of its version of the NDAA. A summary of the bill could be available later today or tomorrow.

…

The numbers to the left of the permitted amendments are the numbers for floor votes. The second number is the original Rules Committee number.

Rejected 192-229 – Floor amendment #1: Blumenauer (OR) #308 – NNSA Nuclear Weapons Spending – Authorizes the Secretary of the Air Force to procure not more than 10  radar upgrades for the Air National Guard F-15C/D aircraft, which is offset by cuts to levels authorized beyond the President’s Budget Request, spread across 9 accounts.

Rejected 194-227 – Floor amendment #3: Sanchez, Loretta (CA) #157 – Nonproliferation Funding  – Gives the Pentagon authority to transfer funds to nuclear nonproliferation, not only to weapons activities and naval reactors. Currently, the bill language limits fund transfers to only weapons activities and naval reactors.

Approved 222-196 – Floor amendment #6: Daines (MT), Cramer, Kevin (ND), Lamborn (CO), Lummis (WY) #76 – ICBM silos – – Strikes subsection (c) of Section 1634 of the bill which terminates in 2021 the requirement that 450 ICBM silos remain in at least warm status.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #14 – Kildee (MN) #243 – NNSA Nuclear Weapons Spending – Allocates $10 million dollars to develop additional financial literacy training programs for incoming and transitioning service members, which would be funded by offsetting the $15.1 billion dollar shipbuilding account and a $902.2 nuclear weapons refurbishment account. Along w/Kildee floor amendment #161 (see below), the amendments reduced funding for the W76 and B61 LEPs by $7.5 million each.

Approved 233-191 – Floor amendment #17 – Lamborn (CO) #61 – New START Treaty – Blocks the use of funds for implementing the New START treaty until certification that the Russian Federation is respecting Ukrainian sovereignty and is no longer violating the INF or CFE treaties.

Approved 224-199 – Floor amendment #24 – Blumenauer (OR) #221 – CBO Nuclear Costs Study – Requires Congressional Budget Office to update, on an annual basis, their report on the projected costs of U.S. nuclear forces.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #28 – Hastings (WA) #126 – Defense Environmental Cleanup – Restores $20 million of the proposed cut to defense environmental cleanup by reducing funding for NNSA weapons activities by $20 million.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #84 – Fortenberry (NE) #317 – Nuclear Nonproliferation – Would require a report as to how the Department of Defense will manage its mission related to nuclear forces, deterrence, nonproliferation and terrorism.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #128 – Gibson (NY) and Garamendi (CA) #38 – AUMF for Syria or Iran – States that nothing in the FY15 NDAA shall be construed as authorizing the use of force against Syria or Iran. (Note: Johnson (GA) submitted an identical amendment #255.)

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #129 – Gosar (AZ) #24 – Iran – Declares that “it is the policy of the United States to fully support Israel’s lawful exercise of self-defense, including actions to halt regional aggression.”

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #131 – Roskam (IL) and Walorski (IN) #5 – Iran – Expresses the Sense of Congress calling on the United States to immediately arm Israel with bunker-buster bombs and refueling tankers “to remove any existential threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program.”

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #145 – Turner (OH) #16 – US Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Europe – Limits availability of FY 2015 funds for removal or consolidation of dual-capable aircraft from Europe.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #147 – Polis (CO) and Nadler (NY) #278 – Missile Defense – – Updates a Sense of Congress in the HASC bill to say that the Secretary of Defense should not procure additional capability enhancement II exoatmospheric kill vehicles for deployment until after the date on which a successful operationally realistic flight intercept flight test of the kill vehicle has occurred.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #148 – Brooks (AL), Rogers (AL), and Turner (OH) #165 – INF Treaty – Requires a Plan to Counter Certain Ground-launched Ballistic Missiles and Cruise Missiles and for other purposes.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #149 – Foster (IL) #252 – Missile Defense – Requires the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) to study the testing program of the ground based midcourse missile defense (GMD) system. IDA would be required to produce a report on the effectiveness of the testing program and recommendations for how it can be improved.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #155 – Larsen (WA) #191 – Nuclear Verification and Monitoring – Requires the creation of an interagency plan for verification and monitoring relating to the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons and fissile material.

Approved by voice vote – Floor amendment #161 – Kildee (MN) #244 – NNSA Nuclear Weapons Spending – Allocates $10 million dollars to develop additional financial literacy training programs for incoming and transitioning service members, which would be funded by offsetting the $15.1 billion dollar shipbuilding account and a $902.2 nuclear weapons refurbishment account. Along w/Kildee floor amendment #14 (see above), the amendments reduced funding for the W76 and B61 LEPs by $7.5 million each.

GOP REFUSE TO ALLOW TO BE DEBATED:  Quigley (IL) and Garamendi (CA) #147 – Directs GAO to conduct an analysis of the justification and rationale for maintaining the nuclear triad, and to identify any excess that may result in cost savings.

GOP REFUSE TO ALLOW TO BE DEBATED:  Sanchez (CA) and Larsen (WA) #158 – Nuclear Weapons Deployed in Europe – Requires a certification that the cost of sustaining and forward-deploying nuclear weapons in Europe will be shared by NATO members, and not just paid by the United States.

GOP REFUSE TO ALLOW TO BE DEBATED:  Doggett (TX) #238 – Iran – Sense of Congress to say that a comprehensive agreement with Iran relating to Iran’s nuclear program should substantially increase the security of the people of the USand include significant and verifiable constraints sufficient to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The amendment also expresses the Sense of Congress that existing sanctions related to Iran’s other proscribed activities will continue to be strictly enforced until Iran ceases such activities.

Posted in: Nukes of Hazard blog, Pentagon Budget, Security Spending

May 22, 2014

Experts React to NDAA Passage in the House

“The Rules Committee has refused to allow amendments that could potentially damage the ideological trajectory determined by House leadership and effectively created a guided democracy,” said Executive Director John Isaacs. “The Rules Committee forced Members to weaken amendments, only permitted recorded votes on their ‘winning’ amendments and refused to allow votes on amendments they thought could not be controlled.”

Posted in: Pentagon Budget, Press & In the News on Pentagon Budget, Press Releases, Press Room, Security Spending

May 12, 2014

OCO, WARTHOGS, GTRI, AND SSBNX: Making Sense of the Alphabet Soup & Nickname Game that is the NDAA

The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation will host a press call with Lt. General Robert Gard and John Isaacs to outline key provisions of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as it moves to the House floor.

Posted in: Press & In the News on Missile Defense, Press & In the News on Non-Proliferation, Press & In the News on Nuclear Weapons, Press & In the News on Nuclear Weapons Spending, Press & In the News on Pentagon Budget, Press & In the News on the Middle East, Press Releases

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