Howard P. 'Buck' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015

H.R.4435
Introduced: 
April 9, 2014
113
Second
May 22, 2014
Passed in House

This annual must-pass bill gives the Dept. of Defense legal authority for its activities and authorizes funding for those activities that subsequent appropriation bills approve. The bill’s relevant sections for the purposes of the Congressional Monitor concern missile defense cooperation with Israel and managing relations with Iran. The FY 2015 NDAA eventually passed as *H.R. 3979 of 1/31/14 (see above). The totals cited below reflect only the initial House Armed Services Comm. draft and several relevant amendments.

U.S.-Israel Missile Defense Programs

This bill would authorize the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to spend up to $268.803 m. on the development of joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs, an increase of $172 m. over the administration’s funding request. In the House Armed Services Comm. report accompanying the bill, spending on these programs was explained by citing their effectiveness and referencing the size of Iran’s ballistic missile inventory. The committee also expressed support for coproduction within these programs.

Separately, $351.972 m. would be authorized for the Iron Dome missile defense system, an increase of $176 m. over the president’s request. In its accompanying report, the committee requested that half of the funds be disbursed incrementally by the MDA, based on a series of logistical and supervisory qualifications. The committee also established procedures to implement the coproduction elements of earlier agreements, with the specific goal of increasing the share of U.S. participation.

Relatedly, the bill would also reaffirm U.S. policy to ‘fully support Israel’s lawful exercise of self-defense, including actions to halt regional aggression,’ specifically ensuring that it has the necessary defense items to carry out an attack on Iran. It would also recommend that certain items—air refueling tankers and advanced bunker-buster munitions—be immediately transferred to Israel to ensure that it can ‘remove any existential threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program.’ Finally, it would require the president to submit a report to Congress on the steps taken to employ these recommendations and to identify other defense articles that would help Israel ‘remove existential security threats,’ including Iranian nuclear weapons facilities.

Managing Relations with Iran

The secretary of defense would be required to report to Congress within 6 mos. and annually for the next 3 years on Defense Dept. contractors and subcontractors that have conducted significant transactions with Iranian persons, including those subject to sanctions, and the value of their transactions.

The president would be required to submit a report to Congress on the 6-month interim deal with Iran, including verification of Iran’s compliance and an assessment of the overall state of Iran’s nuclear program. If the interim deal was extended or a final deal was reached, the president would be required to submit another report on the new agreement with the same requirements.

In a nonbinding ‘sense of Congress’ section, the bill lays out a series of policies for the U.S. to pursue in relation to Iran’s nuclear program, including a set of qualifications for any final accord struck during the P5+1 negotiations with Iran. In response to the proposed bill, the president released an official policy statement expressing his concern that congressional conditions on the negotiations would ‘undermine’ the P5+1’s efforts.

The text included the stipulation that nothing in the bill should be interpreted as an authorization of the use of military force against Iran.

Leading up to the 5/19 deadline for submitting amendments, members of the House submitted numerous possible changes to the Rules Comm. Many amendments which the committee ruled ‘out of order’ were later introduced as independent measures (including 1 by Trent Franks [R-AZ], which turned into H.R. 4967 of 6/25/14). While not adopted, the only relevant amendment ruled

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