Global Security Newswire

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday approved the $612 billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 2009 and the Senate is expected to follow suit before the end of the week, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 24).

The legislation enables funding for various nuclear, missile defense and nonproliferation programs within the Defense and Energy departments, though the actual money would come through a separate appropriations bill.

House lawmakers backed full funding for installation of an early warning radar site in the Czech Republic, one component of the Bush administration's plan for missile defenses in Europe (Laurie Kellman, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Sept. 24).

The legislation cuts nearly $246 million from the Bush administration's $712 million request for the European missile shield initiative. That includes removing $90 million from the requested $133 million for construction of a missile interceptor site in Poland.

However, lawmakers agreed to allow some purchases of components for the 10 missile interceptors. The weapons, though, could not be bought or deployed until the Pentagon conducts a series of tests to prove their efficacy.

The construction funds are sufficient for the Missile Defense Agency to maintain its schedule to begin construction in Poland in late 2009, according to agency spokesman Rick Lehner. Authorizing some interceptor parts purchases also helps keep the agency on schedule to deploy the missile defense systems by 2013.

Testing could pose a problem for that schedule. The Missile Defense Agency wants to start the interceptor tests in 2010 but has faced a number of delays in its testing operations (Associated Press II/USA Today, Sept. 24).

The bill allows $16.1 billion for nuclear defense operations, a slight bump up from the Bush administration request, Environment and Energy Daily reported. Nearly $10 billion of that would be used by the Energy Department's semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, which saw its requested authorization for weapons operations drop by $7 billion to $6.6 billion in the compromise version of the bill. Lawmakers also eliminated funding for advanced nuclear weapons work and slashed the authorized budget for nuclear pit production by $20 million.

The legislation authorizes $222 million for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada, $25 million less than sought by the Bush administration (see GSN, July 16; Katherine Ling, Environment and Energy Daily, Sept. 24).