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SASC Releases FY21 NDAA Mark; Senate To Consider Amendments and Full Legislation on Senate Floor Next Week
On June 11, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), voted 25-2 to advance the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The committee provided a 20-page summary of the legislation.
CLICK HERE FOR THE SCA SUMMARY
The bill would provide $740.5 billion in total, including $636.4 billion under the measure as part of its regular Pentagon budget and $69 billion for overseas contingency operations, or war funding.
Overall, the bill would authorize $21.3 billion for shipbuilding, $1.4 billion above the request. The legislation would also authorize seven new ships, one fewer than requested due to the LPD-31 previously authorized by Congress. Additionally, the measure would boost Virginia-class submarine advance procurement by $472 million to preserve the option to procure 10 Virginia-class ships and would provide multi-ship contract authority for up to two Columbia-class submarines. The bill would also establish a new Pacific Deterrence Initiative to beef up the U.S. military posture to deter China. It would earmark $1.4 billion in fiscal 2021 and another $5.5 billion for fiscal 2022.
The bill text can be found HERE and the committee report can be found HERE.
The Senate is expected to consider the legislation and additional amendments on the floor next week.
House Armed Services Committee Releases Subcommittee Marks – Full Committee Marks Scheduled for Next Week
This week, the House Armed Services held subcommittee markups for the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The subcommittee marks cumulatively represent the Chairman’s proposal, which will be considered by the full committee beginning Wednesday, July 1st. The Chairman’s summary of the bill can be found HERE.
The subcommittee authorized just under $22 billion, $2.1 billion above the request, for the purchase of eight battle force ships — a Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, two Virginia-class attack submarines, two Arleigh Burke destroyers, a new frigate and two towing and salvage ships.
The proposal would wall off 75 percent of the defense secretary's operations and maintenance budget until the Pentagon delivers a 30-year shipbuilding budget to Congress. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has been at odds with top House lawmakers who have called for the Pentagon to produce a long-term shipbuilding blueprint, which the law requires to be submitted alongside the annual defense budget request.
The legislation also would block the retirement of any Navy ship in fiscal 2021 until the Pentagon submits the Navy's integrated force structure assessment to Congress. The Seapower subcommittee also adopted an amendment that would alter the Jones Act waiver statute to clarify the requirements of a national defense waiver, limits the duration of a national defense waiver, and requires public disclosure of information about foreign vessel users of the waiver.
An SCA Summary of the full NDAA markup will be available next week.
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