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U.S. Response: House, Senate Pass Defense Bills; Approve Key Elements of Bush Nuclear Agenda By David Ruppe The chambers also approved the administration’s request for an initial deployment of 20 ground-based and 20 sea-based national missile defense interceptors by October 2005, while requiring the Pentagon to begin testing the system for operational performance. The two versions of the bill, however, differ in a number of ways that will need to be reconciled during a House-Senate conference. Furthermore, the bills do not reflect the administration’s proposals exactly, as Democrats in both houses with Republican cooperation were able to pass several amendments tailoring the legislation. Similarities Both bills approved the administration’s request for $15 million for research of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a nuclear weapon intended to destroy deeply buried and hardened targets. That program, already underway, includes the study of potentially using an existing nuclear weapon developed for that purpose in the 1990s. The chambers, which both approved the administration’s request for a repeal of a 10-year prohibition on research of low-yield nuclear weapons, also approved $6 million for nuclear weapons research in a program called the Advanced Concepts Initiative. The money could be used for research of new low-yield nuclear weapons intended for potential use also against deeply buried targets, as well as chemical and biological weapons facilities. Both bills authorized funding to reduce the preparation time for resuming nuclear weapons testing from 32 months to 18 months. Differences In a bipartisan compromise, the House bill — but not the Senate legislation — did not authorize the administration’s request to repeal a ban on the development of low-yield nuclear weapons, provoking an expression of disappointment from the White House. “Maintaining the prohibition on development will hinder the ability of our scientists and engineers to explore technical options to deter national security threats of the 21st century,” the administration said yesterday in a critique of the bill. The Senate bill, on the other hand, granted a partial repeal by allowing the United States to develop such weapons, but only with specific Congressional approval. The Senate bill also differs from the House version in that it requires the same sort of approval for engineering development work on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program and for spending on design, development and deployment of hit-to-kill interceptors or other weapons to be deployed in space. The Bush administration has indicated plans for developing space-based interceptors over the coming decade (see GSN, Jan. 22). Threat Reduction Both bills approved in full the administration’s request for money to Pentagon and Energy Department programs to dismantle and secure weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. The House bill though, unlike the Senate, did not contain authorization for using Pentagon funds outside the former Soviet Union, which the administration has advocated. The bill, according to the White House analysis, “would limit the President’s flexibility to apply CTR [Cooperative Threat Reduction] resources to the most pressing nonproliferation challenges in support of the global war on terrorism and would not clarify that DOE has authority to carry out such activities outside states of the former Soviet Union.” The House bill did, however, contain an amendment introduced by Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) to authorize the State Department to expand existing nuclear material security activities outside the former Soviet Union. Bush Missile Defense Deployment Approved Both bills approved the administration’s $9.1 billion request for missile defense programs, including authorization of the White House request for an initial deployment of the national missile defense system by October 2004. Although the system is still under development and has not yet been proven through operational testing, as major systems normally are before deployment, the administration is planning to deploy an initial element, consisting in part of 10 land-based interceptors by October 2004 and 10 more the following year, as well as 20 sea-based interceptors. Both Houses also passed Democrat-sponsored amendments requiring the setting of performance criteria for developing missile defense systems that will be evaluated through operational testing. “Currently, none of the missile defense programs under development, under the Missile Defense Agency, have established performance criteria, meaning essentially there are no standards for when a system reaches any particular milestone or has completed its development. These standards did exist under the Clinton administration but were removed by the current administration,” said Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.). The House went a step further, however, requiring that prior to any subsequent deployments the president must rigorously test and comply with initial test and operational evaluation requirements.
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