By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate appears to have missed the majority leader’s goal of passing the fiscal year 2009 defense authorization bill this week, with debate stalled yesterday after scant action Wednesday, when just a handful of amendments were considered.
A successful amendment calls for authorizing $89 million for a X-band radar for an unnamed foreign country, presumably Israel.
Senators are expected to be busy today with a so-called energy summit, followed by extensive debate next week on energy and offshore-drilling-related legislation.
Some aides speculated yesterday afternoon that the chamber will try to rush and pass the defense authorization bill early next week, while others predicted the measure will not come up again until the following week. Congress is scheduled to adjourn for the year Sept. 26, though talk is increasing on Capitol Hill of a lame-duck session in November.
As of Defense Daily‘s deadline early yesterday evening, Senate debate on the defense authorization bill was stalled because of partisan gridlock over amendments. Republicans want, among other things, a vote on an amendment recognizing the success of the troop surge in Iraq crafted by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph Lieberman (I/D- Conn.), a GOP aide said.
The Senate passed an amendment by voice vote on Wednesday to make available, from research and development activities, $89 million for activating and deploying the AN/TPY-2 forward-based X- brand radar. Crafted by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the successful measure states the radar would be in a “classified location.”
In July the United States agreed to deploy the X-Band radar in Israel.
“The amendment offered provides funding for the Missile Defense Agency to deploy an early-warning X-band missile defense radar to an allied nation, which press reports have noted was agreed to in meetings with senior DoD leaders and the allied nation’s defense leaders,” Kyl said in a statement in the Congressional Record.
“Due to the sensitive nature of preparations for this deployment, details concerning the specific location and operational concept have not been publicly revealed,” he added. “However, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency said the new system could double or even triple a threat missiles’ range of identification, which would be particularly useful should countries such as Syria or Iran launch an attack against a critical allied nation.”
The newly deployed early-warning radar will also provide “an important element of the U.S. missile defense network, providing ascent and mid-course coverage of missiles, launched from Iran, as well as the eastern Mediterranean,” Kyl said.
Meanwhile, the Senate rejected a proposed amendment on Wednesday from Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to boost spending in the bill for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) by $271 million, a move that would have reduced an overall $411 million cut in the bill to the Bush administration’s MDA request. The amendment was shot down in a roll-call vote of 39-57.
Vitter said the amendment would “ensure that we have robust, full missile defense capabilities in this era of real threat, real uncertainty from terrorists, rogue nations, and others.”
The unsuccessful measure called for authorizing $54 million to accelerate the upgrade of two more Aegis cruisers to be fully equipped with ballistic-missile-defense systems, $100 million for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor and ground components, $30 million for risk reduction with the SM-3 Block IB program, and $87 million for target sets for testing missile systems.
Vitter noted the Pentagon’s desire to double the number of planned THAAD and SM-3 interceptors.
However, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said for the four areas identified by Vitter the bill either fully funds the administration’s request or gives more money than requested.
And Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said boosting missile defense spending in the bill by $271 million would hurt other aircraft, shipbuilding and missile programs.
The House passed its version of the FY ’09 defense authorization bill on May 22. Lawmakers and aides are waiting to kick off a House-Senate conference committee in hopes to send final legislation to the White House before FY ’09 begins Oct. 1.