FOR THE RECORD


CONGRESSIONAL UPDATE


CONGRESS MAKES PROGRESS ON FY13 DOD BILLS The congressional defense committees continue to push toward early passage of the FY13 Defense Appropriations Act and National Defense Authorization Act. By the end of May, three of the four com- mittees had completed work on their annual legislation, with only the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) failing to complete work on its FY13 defense spending bill.


The House Armed Services Commit- tee (HASC) kicked off the FY13 budget cycle April 26 with subcommittee mark- ups of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13 NDAA). The full HASC then held a marathon


markup session May 9 and approved the bill, HR 4310, in a 56-5 vote.


The bill was approved May 18 by the full House of Representatives in a 299-120 vote after debate that lasted for three days and covered 136 amendments.


Even before it passed the House, HR 4310 received three veto threats from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In its Statement of Administration Policy (SAP), the OMB specifically threatened to veto any FY13 NDAA that exceeds the DoD spending topline mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011, limits the President’s ability to set U.S. nuclear weapons policy, or “challenge(s) critical executive branch authority” to set policy


FY13 DEFENSE LEGISLATION MATERIALS


House-passed FY13 NDAA (HR 4310) http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr4310rh/pdf/BILLS-112hr4310rh.pdf


HASC Report on the FY13 NDAA (H.Rpt. 112-479) http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-112hrpt479/pdf/CRPT-112hrpt479.pdf


SASC-passed FY13 NDAA (S. 3254) http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s3254pcs/pdf/BILLS-112s3254pcs.pdf


SASC Report on the FY13 NDAA (S.Rpt. 112-173) http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-112srpt173/pdf/CRPT-112srpt173.pdf


HAC-passed FY13 Defense Appropriations Act (HR 5856) http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr5856rh/pdf/BILLS-112hr5856rh.pdf


HAC Report on the FY13 Defense Appropriations Act (H.Rpt. 112-493) http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-112hrpt493/pdf/CRPT-112hrpt493.pdf


on the imprisonment and prosecution of detainees suspected of terrorism.


The OMB further objected to numer- ous other provisions in the HASC-passed FY13 NDAA, some of which are enu- merated in the table accompanying this article (see next page.)


While the HASC made quick work of its version of the FY13 NDAA, the Sen- ate Armed Services Committee (SASC) continued its annual tradition of hold- ing closed-door, classified committee and subcommittee markups.


For the second year in a row, the HASC publicly released the bill and report text on its website before markup sessions, whereas the SASC quietly filed its bill and report with the Senate clerk one week after the markup and did not pub- lish either document to its website.


However, as usual, the SASC did issue a mammoth press release summarizing its bill a few hours after the markup was completed. The committee’s bill has since been published by the Govern- ment Printing Office (http://www.gpo. gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s3254pcs/ pdf/BILLS-112s3254pcs.pdf).


The SASC version of the FY13 NDAA actu- ally cuts the DoD budget by $200 million from the $631.6 billion that the President requested in February. The SASC bill also does not contain any of the language on nuclear weapons, gay marriage, or missile defense that drew the wrath of the OMB in its SAP for the HASC bill, although it


162


Army AL&T Magazine


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