The Senate has voted to begin floor consideration of the final, conferenced National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes key provisions to enable the AUKUS trilateral security agreement with the U.K. and Australia and drops many divisive GOP-proposed measures from the House’s version of the bill.
After beginning House and Senate negotiations on the defense policy bill last week, lawmakers late Wednesday evening rolled out the final version of the legislation which authorizes an $886 billion national defense topline for fiscal year 2024.
“Providing for our national defense is Congress’ most important responsibility under the U.S. Constitution, and the NDAA is key to fulfilling that duty. Our nation faces unprecedented threats from China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. It is vital that we act now to protect our national security. We would like to thank all the conferees for their hard work and contributions to this year’s bill. Through months of hard-fought and productive negotiations, we have crafted a bipartisan and bicameral conference report that strengthens our national security and supports our servicemembers. We urge Congress to pass the NDAA quickly and President Biden to sign it when it reaches his desk,” Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash), leaders of the Senate and House Armed Service Committees said in a joint statement.
While the Senate approved moving to debate on the NDAA with a bipartisan vote on Thursday, new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will need to navigate the razor-thin GOP majority and secure the support of hardline Freedom Caucus members in order to to pass the bill, which has removed many of their proposals from the lower chamber’s legislation such as blocking the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy.
“The watered-down NDAA should not be passed by the House GOP. It was jammed through with no real conference, punts fixes on abortion, transgender and even drag shows, and adds FISA extension with no reforms that keep (bad) procedures [until] April 2025,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said in a social media post, referring to the final NDAA’s inclusion of short-term extension for the FISA Sec. 702 surveillance authority.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) on Thursday highlighted the inclusion of critical measures in the final NDAA required to support AUKUS, including authorizing the transfer of Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and allowing for “Australian financial contributions to the U.S. defense industrial base and the sharing of technology and information between the three nations to safely streamline security cooperation.”
“After weeks of negotiations within the NDAA Conference Committee and over a year of advocacy from Canberra to Washington, the FY ‘24 National Defense Authorization Act reported out today advances the AUKUS trilateral security agreement. For the first time since the launch of the USS Nautilus in 1958, this NDAA authorizes the US Navy to sell two conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines to another nation—our steadfast ally Australia. In addition, it streamlines technology sharing among the three AUKUS allies under the umbrella of the Defense Production Act to strengthen deterrence in the Indo-Pacific,” Courtney, ranking member on the House Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee, said in a statement.
Last month, Courtney and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), HASC’s vice chair, said they were “bullish” that the key AUKUS measures would be included in the final NDAA, as the U.S. aims to sell three to five new and used Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the 2030s (Defense Daily, Nov. 14).
Courtney also noted the final NDAA includes the House’s provision allowing the Navy to enter into multi-year procurement for 13 Virginia-class submarines in its next contract, whereas the Senate’s bill allowed for 10 submarines, adding it “will guarantee a steady demand to boost production capacity and thus meet our fleet requirements.”
The final version of the NDAA also includes a provision blocking any spending in FY ‘24 on construction of a new headquarters building for U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado until the Pentagon’s inspector general completes its investigation into the recent basing decision.
President Biden in late July decided to keep Space Command in Colorado, where its interim headquarters have been located, reversing a Trump administration recommendation to base the command in Huntsville, Alabama (Defense Daily, July 31).
The announcement drew support from Colorado lawmakers, including Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), while Rogers said in a statement “the fight is far from over” and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, added the Biden administration “inserted politics” into the decision.
The compromised version of the NDAA also supports a requirement for continued development of a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N), to include $70 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration to develop the weapon’s warhead, while the Biden administration has sought to fund and argued the U.S. already has capabilities to achieve a similar deterrent effect (Defense Daily, Dec. 7).
Lawmakers did not include a provision from the House’s version of the bill to shutter the Pentagon’s Office of Cost Estimate and Program Evaluation (CAPE) or to create a Space National Guard.
The Senate is likely to move onto final NDAA votes next week, before the House takes up the defense policy bill.