Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved legislation containing provisions that might restrict the Obama administration's ability to implement a new Russian-U.S. nuclear arms control deal (see GSN, May 10).

By a 60-1 morning vote, the Republican-dominated panel approved the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill. Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) was the lone dissenting vote.

The $553 billion measure covers spending on military programs for the fiscal year that begins on October 1. That amount matches the request made by the White House in February.

The committee on Wednesday approved -- largely along party lines -- four amendments that GOP lawmakers said were designed to hold the Obama administration to nuclear complex modernization pledges in implementing the successor agreement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. However, committee Democrats asserted that these provisions could instead tie the president's hands in carrying out the New START pact.

The treaty, which entered into force early this year, requires each side to cut its fielded strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 warheads, down from the ceiling of 2,200 demanded by the 2002 Moscow Treaty. It also limits each nation's deployed nuclear delivery vehicles to 700, with another 100 platforms in reserve.

To help attract Republican support in the U.S. Senate for New START ratification last year, the White House pledged to invest $85 billion over the next decade to build new nuclear research facilities and service aging warheads. The treaty was approved in a 71-26 vote of the Senate last December, with 13 Republicans favoring ratification.

One amendment now included in the authorization bill would prevent the White House from spending funds between 2011 and 2017 to retire any nuclear warhead covered by the latest pact unless the Defense and Energy secretaries provide joint certification that the remaining arsenal is being modernized.

The measure, sponsored by Representative Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), would also ban unilateral reductions in deployed or nondeployed U.S. nuclear weapons below the levels set by the treaty.

In addition, the amendment prohibits the administration from making any cuts to what Republican panel members dubbed the nuclear "hedge force" until the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement site at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., are operational.

The Associated Press reported the United States has roughly 3,000 nondeployed strategic warheads.

The panel also approved a measure offered by Representative John Fleming (R-La.) that would require the president to notify Congress before adopting any new nuclear targeting strategy that would put enemy cities at risk. The amendment reflects growing concern among Republican lawmakers that the Obama administration might alter the nation's nuclear warfighting approach as it contemplates future stockpile reductions.

Republicans argued changing the targets from enemy military installations to populated cities would be immoral and constitute a huge change from the present strategy. Their Democratic colleagues largely rejected this assertion, saying that the U.S. nuclear strategy for years has comprised a mix of "countervalue" and "counterforce" targets.

The authorization bill also includes a requirement put forward by Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) that would prevent any international agreements from limiting a U.S. antimissile system unless authorized by a future treaty or congressional action. This restriction would apply to any arrangements made during the implementation of New START, such as in the U.S.-Russian Bilateral Consultative Commission.

While New START did not propose any curbs on missile defense, Moscow issued a unilateral statement declaring it could withdraw from the accord if it determined that its nuclear deterrent was threatened by the buildup of U.S. antimissile operations.

At the time, some Republican lawmakers seized on the statement to speculate that U.S. negotiators had cut a secret deal to rein in future missile defense plans, a charge that the Obama administration has firmly denied.

Turner also successfully offered another amendment to the defense authorization legislation -- this one blocking the United States or NATO from unilaterally cutting Washington's tactical nuclear weapons in Europe unless certain conditions are met, including a host nation or high-level alliance request.

The four GOP amendments relating to the New START agreement that passed the House committee last night were all based on wording in Turner's so-called "New START Implementation Act." Three provisions from the Turner measure were already incorporated into the House committee chairman's mark. Similar legislation was filed this week in the Senate by Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

During the House committee debate, Democrats -- led by Strategic Forces Subcommittee Ranking Member Loretta Sanchez (Calif.) and Rick Larsen (Wash.) -- argued that the various strategic forces amendments amounted to nothing more than a power grab by GOP members.

"Congress did have its say; it just didn't happen to be this chamber of Congress that had its say with the New START," Larsen said.

The Senate has yet to pass its version of the spending plan. Once that chamber acts, the two measures will have to be reconciled in conference, where many of the newly minted stipulations related to treaty implementation are not expected to survive.