Update [2004-6-7 15:18:23 by tyroneslothrop]: According to http://cq.com, the House and Senate have suspended legislative activity for today and tommorrow, which gives y'all a bit more time to contact your Senators about these votes.
The Senate resumes debate today on the 2005 Defense Authorization bill. Thankfully, the framers saw fit to give the Senate the power of unlimited debate, which means no rules committee, which means that there will be floor votes on many of the amendments that David Dreier and the House Rules Committee ruled out of order.
Votes on the amendments start tomorrow. From my perspective, few of these will be as important as the votes on new nuclear weapons funding, particularly the Feinstein/Kennedy amendment:
Sens. Feinstein (D-CA), Kennedy (D-MA), Reed (RI), Lautenberg and Feingold have offered amendment No. 3263 to delete funds in the bill for R&D on the nuclear bunker buster ($27.6 million) and advanced concepts ($9 million), money that could be used for research on small nuclear weapons. The Committee approved full funding for these two programs requested by the Department of Energy. These weapons are not needed because the U.S. already has 6,000 deployed nuclear weapons. Moreover, a U.S. decision to proceed with a new generation of nuclear weapons will undercut non- proliferation efforts.
The vote on this is expected to be VERY close, and if any of the following are your Senators, please consider calling them today and telling them to support this amendment and stop the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons:
Bill Nelson (Fla.)
Evan Bayh (Ind.)
Susan Collins (Maine)
Olympia Snowe (Maine)
Ben Nelson (Neb.)
Gordon Smith (Ore.)
Arlen Specter (Pa.)
Here's a list of other amendments that may be considered:
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Missile defense
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There is likely to be one or more amendments dealing with the issue of national missile defense. During Senate Armed Services Committee mark-up, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) offered an amendment to fence $550.5 million for interceptors 21 - 40 pending completion of operational testing (the amendment failed 14 -11, with all Democrats but Bayh (D-IN) voting for and all Republicans and Bayh voting against). Sen. Reed (D-RI) offered an amendment to require operational tests, at some undetermined point, for missile defenses being fielded, and to require cost, schedule and performance baselines for m issile defense programs. The amendment failed by an identical vote. Sen. Levin (D-MI) offered but withdrew a third amendment to transfer funding for interceptors 21-30 to homeland defense and combating terrorism accounts.
Some version or versions of these amendments are likely to be offered by Sens. Levin and Reed. Their basic argument is that the planned national missile defense system to be deployed later this year has not undergone any realistic, operational testing and no such tests are planned for the future. Thus there is no way to know whether the system to be deployed will work.
Sen. Boxer (D-CA) is expected to offer an amendment that would require the Secretary of Defense to certify that the initial missile defense deployment scheduled for this year can perform its mission as determined by operationally realistic testing.
Senator Bayh is likely to offer an amendment to require combat realistic testing for the ground-based interceptors.
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Selling missile defense technology
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Sen. Allard (R-CO) may offer an amendment to make it easier for the U.S. to sell missile defense technology to other countries by easing U.S. export regulations on the sale or transfer of such technology. This step could conflict with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MCTR), which calls upon its 33 members to restrict their exports of missiles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction. Defensive missiles can be made into offensive missiles. At a time when the U.S. is trying to discourage other countries from obtaining missile technology that could be used to attack us with weapons of mass destruction, the Allard amendment goes in the wrong direction.
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Plutonium
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Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) has offered an amendment to require a report on the efforts of the National Nuclear Security Administration to understand the aging of plutonium in nuclear weapons. It requires a study group of scientists to be established to carry out a study to assess the efforts of the National Nuclear Security Administration to understand the aging of plutonium in nuclear weapons. In contracting for the performance of such services, the Administrator shall seek to enter into that contract with the study group of scientists that is affiliated with MITRE Corporation and known as the JASON group. Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator would be required to submit to Congress a report on the findings of the contractor on the efforts of the Administration to understand the aging of plutonium in nuclear weapons. The report shall include the recommendations of the contractor for improving the knowledge, understanding, and application of the fundamental and applied sciences related to the study of plutonium aging. The report shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
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Paying for the war in Iraq (2)
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Sen. Biden is expected to offer an amendment to eliminate tax cuts for the wealthy to raise $25 billion to pay for the war in Iraq. His amendment is similar to one he offered during consideration of the budget resolution.
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Reporting on the war in Iraq
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Senator Bayh is likely to offer amendment requiring the Pentagon to provide a goals, objectives, milestones and strategy report on Iraq.
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Reporting on the war on terror
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Sen. Dayton (D-MN) has offered amendment No. 3203 to require monthly reports to Congress on costs of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and other operations related to the war on terrorism.
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Contracting out in Iraq
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Sen. Dodd (D-CT) may offer an amendment to place a one-year moratorium on the use of contractors for interrogations in Iraq, on transferring prisoners into the custody of contractors and limiting contractor involvement in U.S.-led combat operations. According to a May 5 story in the Washington Post, there are at least 60 private security companies employing 20,000 workers operating in Iraq. These contract employees are involved in providing security (including security for the Coalition Provisional Authority) and managing prisons. There is a lack of clarity about the chain of command for private security forces and who is responsible for disciplining employees involved in prison abuses. The Committee bill contains several reporting requirements concerning military contractors.
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Iraqi prison scandal (1)
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Senator Bingaman (D-NM) may offer an amendment to require the Pentagon to provide semi-annual reports to Congress related to investigations of Geneva Convention violations and data related to foreign detainees and detention facilities. This amendment will assist in Congress's oversight responsibilities without intervening in ongoing investigations.
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Iraqi prisoner scandal (2)
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Sen. Durbin (D-IL) may offer an amendment dealing with the prisoner abuses at prisons in Iraq.
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Photos of returning coffins
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Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) is considering offering an amendment to modify the Pentagon policy, which, until a recent and temporary exception, has barred photographs of the coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Dover Air Force Base, citing family privacy issues. Others suspect that the policy is designed to hide the painful costs of the war.
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Reimburse families who purchased body armor for soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan
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Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sen. Dodd (D-CT) are considering offering an amendment to reimburse the families who have been forced to spend as much as $1,500 for body armor for family members fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many soldiers did not have body armor when they entered Iraq.
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Iraq stabilization
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Sens. Kennedy (D-MA) and Leahy (D-VT) introduced amendment No. 3174 to require the President to submit a report to Congress on the strategy of the United States for stabilizing Iraq, including descriptions of the President's efforts to involve NATO and the UN, to develop an Iraqi security force, and an estimate of the troop requirements for the next five years, including the percentage of reservists that will be required.
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Strengthen Intelligence commission
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An amendment could be offered to require the commission established by President Bush on February 7 to study the intelligence failures concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to hold public hearings and to provide a report to Congress and the public. The panel will be co-chaired by a Democrat and a Republican: Former Sen. Chuck Robb of Virginia, and former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Laurence Silberman.
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Iraq authorization of force
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Sen. Byrd (D-WV) may offer an amendment to modify the original use of force resolution in Iraq approved by Congress in October 2002 by stating that the mission in Iraq is now one of stabilization, rather than preemption. The amendment would emphasize that the United States must work with the United Nations and our allies to accomplish the mission to transfer sovereignty to the Iraqi people.
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Tracking injured soldiers
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Sen. Pryor (D-AR) introduced amendment no. 3264 to establish procedure for tracking and care of members of the armed forces who are injured in combat.
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Bodies of service people
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Sen. Snowe (R-ME) introduce amendment No. 3270 to require family members or designees to greet bodies of members of the armed forces killed in action overseas upon the return to the United States at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
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Encourage other nations to participate in peacekeeping
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Sen. Inhofe may offer an amendment to authorize the Secretary of State to provide up to $100 million in equipment, supplies, services, training, and funding assistance in FY 2005 to other nations in order to enhance their preparedness (and willingness) to participate in international peacekeeping efforts.
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Contracting out
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Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) may offer an amendment that Pentagon civilian employee jobs cannot be contracted out unless there is a transparent public-private competition process.
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Amendments (& a bill) considered
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Global clean-out
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Sens. Domenici (R-NM), Feinstein, Lugar, Biden, Alexander, Bingaman, Reed, Akaka, Warner, Levin and Feingold's amendment No. 3192 to authorize a program to clean up stockpiles of highly enriched uranium around the globe that could be turned into nuclear bombs was adopted by voice vote on May 19. The proponents argue that current policies leave a significant gap between the urgency of the threat from these materials around the globe being stolen or sold and the U.S. government response. The danger that nuclear weapons, or the materials and expertise needed to make them, might fall into the hands of violent extremist groups is very real. The amendment does not actually authorize funds annually for global clean-out and require the DOE to establish an office to coordinate and rapidly remove nuclear materials from the world's most at- risk facilities.
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Contractors and terrorist organizations
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Sens. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Clinton (D-NY), Corzine (D-NJ) and Feingold (D-WI) amendment No. 3151 to deny terrorist funding and support by closing loopholes allowing U.S. companies to do business with terrorist sponsoring nations such as Iran was rejected 49 - 50 on May 19.
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Paying for the war in Iraq
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Sens. Warner (R-VA), Levin (D-MI) and Stevens (R-AK) amendment No. 3260 to authorize the $25 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was adopted 95 - 0 on June 2. The amendment included many more "strings" than the Bush Administration requested. The Administration had submitted a less-than-precise request for $25 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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DOE high level waste
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Sen. Graham (R-SC)'s amendment No. 3170 (and a Crapo perfecting amendment) to strike section 3119 and authorize $350 million for cleanup was adopted by voice vote on June 3.
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DOE high level waste
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Sens. Cantwell (D-WA), Hollings (D-SC), Murray (D-WA), Clinton (D-NY) and Feinstein (D-CA)'s amendment No. 3261 to overturn the Committee vote on a Graham amendment failed on a tie vote, 48 - 48, on June 3. During mark-up, Sen. Graham (R- SC) successfully offered provisions to permit the Department of Energy to reclassify high level radioactive wastes. If enacted, this provision would permit the Department to abandon clean-up efforts of millions of gallons of high-level nuclear waste next to drinking water supplies in South Carolina. This language turns decades of law on its head without the benefit of a single hearing in the traditional Committees of jurisdiction, sets a terrible precedent for other states that are home to either high-level waste inventories or disposal sites, and overturns a recent District Court ruling in which DOE's attempt to reclassify HLW waste was deemed unlawful under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. The legislation could also affect high level nuclear waste in Washington, Idaho and perhaps New York.
