The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) this week will kick off the annual mark-up season for the defense bills, beginning with two subcommittee mark-ups on April 22 and four more on April 23. The plan is to mark up the committee's full version of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on April 29, likely finishing up in the wee hours of April 30. In the Senate, a bipartisan bill could hit the floor establishing a process for Congress to review any deal over Iran's nuclear program.
Issue: HASC Goes to Work
What's happening: The lower chamber's Armed Services Committee will begin its NDAA work with its six subcommittees formally approving their portions of the full bill. The emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee leads off on April 22, followed by the readiness subpanel. The following day, the remaining subcommittees will mark up in this order: tactical air and land forces; military personnel; seapower and projection forces; and strategic forces.
What to watch: The committee will again address controversial issues such as the Air Force's renewed proposal to retire its A-10 attack planes. But don't expect the subcommittees' documents to include ways to keep alive programs the services have proposed truncating or canceling. The full HASC typically takes up the most controversial matters during the all-members mark-up.
Issue: Iran Bill
What's happening: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week unanimously approved a measure that would establish a framework for Congress to examine and vote on a potential pact with Iran over its nuclear program. Following weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations among senior committee leaders and staffers, the panel sent to the full Senate a measure setting up a 30-day review period of any deal. Further, it states Congress will put off votes on any deal until after a June 30 deadline for Iran and six world powers to reach an agreement.
What to watch: For starters, whether the bill gets to the floor this week. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., last week called the measure — the final version of which was negotiated by Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ranking Member Ben Cardin, D-Md. — a candidate to reach the floor this week. In a major twist, the White House, which has opposed the bill since it was conceived, signed on to the compromise version. So keep an eye on Republican senators such as Marco Rubio of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Both withheld amendments during the committee's mark-up that Democrats and the White House likely would fight.
Issue: Budget Talks
What's happening: House and Senate negotiators will continue talks about a final version of a 2016 federal spending resolution. The House passed a $3.8 trillion budget plan that would fund the Pentagon at the level of existing spending caps, $499 billion. It also approved an overseas contingency operations fund that would give the Defense Department $90 billion in war funds. The Senate's version is $3.5 trillion, and also funds the Pentagon's base budget at the cap level. Its war fund for the military is $89 billion. Both chambers included nearly $40 billion more in OCO funding to appease defense hawks, who continue to warn the military is underfunded.
What to watch: The extra $38 billion in war account budget authority is assured of making it into the compromise version that is expected to pass both chambers. But analysts doubt the House and Senate Appropriations committees will craft 2016 military spending bills with $90 billion OCO sections. If the budget talks conclude this week, keep an ear open for talk of a follow-on deal later this year that would raise defense and domestic spending caps. The House and Senate Budget Committees have talked very little about such a package, but scuttlebutt surfaces every few weeks on Capitol Hill about the political benefit for both parties if lawmakers pass one.