Week Ahead: Congress goes nuclear

by Carlo Muñoz - 05/03/13 8:48 PM ET

The heads of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will update the Senate defense panel on America’s national security laboratories and their work to maintain the U.S. ballistic arsenal.

{mosads}In the House, defense lawmakers on Wednesday will meet with the NNSA chief from the Department of Energy to get details on the administration’s nuclear weapons work for fiscal 2014.

That same day, members of the House defense committee will hear from Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs Madelyn Creedon and Michael Gilmore, the head of the Defense Department’s weapons testing division, on the capabilities of America’s missile defense shield.

Creedon and Strategic Command chief Air Force Gen. Bob Kehler will go before the House defense panel on Thursday to discuss the missile shield and efforts to improve and maintain the nuclear weapons enterprise.

On the Senate side, Creedon, Gilmore and the service heads in charge of nuclear weapons and missile defense will make their case Thursday for those programs in the 2014 defense budget plan.

The hearings come as House Republicans are gearing up to wage another fight this year over a new East Coast missile defense site.

Sixteen Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee fired the first shot Tuesday, sending a letter urging House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) to include $250 million in funding for the site in this year’s Defense appropriations bill.

The committee members, which included Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), said they would also be putting the $250 million in this year’s defense authorization bill, which approves Pentagon spending and sets defense policy.

While defense legislators in Congress will spend most of this week focused on America’s nuclear posture, lawmakers are also planning to wrap up hearings on the defense budget.

First up will be Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, who will defend the service’s spending plan to members of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Both service leaders will make appearances before the Senate and House Appropriations Defense subcommittees on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

This year’s round of budget defense hearings will likely be the last for Donley, who will be stepping down from the service’s top spot in June, ending a nearly five-year run as the Air Force’s top civilian.

Navy leaders including Ray Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos will also hit the hearing circuit on Capitol Hill next week. All three will appear before the Senate appropriations Defense subpanel on Tuesday to testify on the budget blueprints for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Navy acquisitions chief Sean Stackley and Vice Adm. Allen Myers, deputy chief of naval operations for capabilities and resources, will provide information on the Navy’s plan to build a 300-ship fleet to Senate defense lawmakers on Wednesday.

Stackley told House members in April that the budget plan does not do enough to support the Navy’s long-term shipbuilding plans.

Navy leaders plan to spend an average of $15.1 billion per year over the five-year plan to build up to the 300-ship force. But after that, projected funding levels for shipbuilding “will not be sufficient” to keep pace with the Navy’s plan, according to Stackley.

As a result, Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee Chairman Randy Forbes (R-Va.) is spearheading what he calls “a new framework” for a sustained increase in shipbuilding.

“We are entering the decade of sea power … [so] what is the risk to the United States” if naval power continues to fall by the wayside, Forbes asked during a hearing.

Forbes’s move sets the stage for a battle over the Armed Services panel’s spending plan for fiscal 2014.

The Navy’s shipbuilding strategy would have the fleet top out at 300 warships over the next three decades, but that number could drop if anticipated funding levels set by Congress fall off track.