Subject: POLITICO's Morning Defense, presented by BAE Systems: House NDAA debate begins today — Rules Committee moves to strip women's draft requirement — Carter, Kendall at Sea-Air-Space
From: Morning Defense <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 06:34:02 -0600

By Jeremy Herb and Connor O'Brien | 05/17/2016 08:30 AM EDT

With Louis Nelson, Ellen Mitchell and Daniel Lippman

HAPPENING TODAY - NDAA COOKING ON THE HOUSE FLOOR: Get ready for some late-night C-SPAN: House floor debate on the National Defense Authorization Act starts today. And we're told the House wants to wrap the bill up by Wednesday evening, more quickly than usual, as the military construction-Veterans Affairs and Zika appropriations measures are also on this week's agenda. Here's where things stand:

- RULES PANEL REMOVES WOMEN'S DRAFT REQUIREMENT: The House Rules Committee last night paved the way to remove, without separate debate or a vote on the House floor, a provision in the NDAA that would require women to register for the draft. In approving rules for debate on the bill, the committee accepted an amendment from Rules Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) to remove the provision and study the Selective Service System.

But in a procedural twist, Sessions' amendment is "considered as adopted," meaning the provision will be automatically stripped from the bill when the full House adopts the broad rule for debate Tuesday, as expected. If successful, the move would avoid a politically risky debate for House Republicans. Sessions defended the measure, saying: "I believe this action, taken after close consultation with Chairman [Mac] Thornberry and a number of my colleagues, ensures a reckless policy is not put forward without the proper information and oversight to make an informed decision."

- DEMOCRATS ARE NOT PLEASED: The top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, issued a statement slamming the move. "The Rules Committee chairman is so concerned about a vote on women's equality in the military that he has created a provision 'considered as adopted' that overturns a measure voted on by the Armed Services Committee, ignores the mandatory scoring requirement, and passes itself, avoiding a separate vote by the full House," Smith said. "This is a dead-of-night attempt to take an important issue off the table, and I think people will probably see through this tactic."

THE AMENDMENT RUNDOWN: In all, House Rules accepted 61 amendments to kick off floor debate today. A full list of amendments, along with other rules for today's floor debate, is here. Some highlights:

- SHRINKING NSC: The House will debate a proposal from Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) - a longtime critic of the size and influence of Obama administration's National Security Council - that makes the national security adviser subject to Senate confirmation if the NSC is more than 100 staffers. Another amendment, from Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), requires the NSC to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

- GITMO: An amendment from Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) removes the bill's restrictions on transferring prisoners held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S. and building a facility in the U.S. to hold them. And a proposal from Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) requires the director of national intelligence to conduct a declassification review of intelligence reports related to past terrorist activities of former Gitmo detainees.

- HUEY COMPETITION: Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) has an amendment to fence off 75 percent of the defense secretary's travel expenses until the Pentagon certifies that a acquisitions process to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of UH-1N Huey helicopters will be completed by 2018.

- ROCKET MOTORS: A proposal from Rep. David McKinley (R-W.V.) would require the Pentagon to have at least two suppliers for the engines that power the tactical missiles used on fighter jets if one of those suppliers is foreign. Our colleague Austin Wright's story on the issue is here, for Pros.

The remainder of the bill's 377 filed amendments, which are here, will be considered by the Rules panel today.

THE BIG NDAA PICTURE - WHITE HOUSE ISSUES VETO THREAT OVER OCO: The White House issued its typical veto threat over the NDAA on Monday as it was readied for the House floor. In a statement of administration policy, the White House blasted the legislation for shifting billions in war funds to support unrequested base Pentagon programs, arguing the maneuver "attempts to unravel" last fall's two-year budget agreement that raised caps on both defense and domestic spending.

In addition, the veto threat cites the bill's prohibition on a new round of base closures, restrictions on transferring detainees from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and for "effectively creating hollow force structure" by boosting Army troop levels "without the money to sustain it."

ALSO TODAY - HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS TAKES UP ITS DEFENSE BILL: The House Appropriations Committee marks up the defense spending bill this morning, a week after the measure was approved by the Defense Subcommittee. The appropriations bill typically doesn't get nearly as many amendments as the authorization measure in committee, but there'll be some of the same fights we saw during last month's Armed Services markup.

HAPPY TUESDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email-masked], and follow on Twitter @jeremyherb, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

HAPPENING TODAY, NON-HILL EDITION - CARTER, KENDALL AT SEA-AIR-SPACE: Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Pentagon chief weapons buyer Frank Kendall speak at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space Exposition at National Harbor in Maryland. The full schedule for the three-day conference is here. Some highlights from Monday, via our colleague Ellen Mitchell:

- NAVY, MARINE CHIEFS PRESS INDUSTRY FOR ON-TIME GEAR: The chiefs of the Navy and the Marine Corps said on Monday the military and industry were "too polite" in their discussions to address major problems with program delays and an onerous Pentagon acquisition process. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson acknowledged the Defense Department had a daunting number of requirements and documents that partly prevented the timely delivery of equipment to troops.

- NAVY ASSESSES V-22 WEAPONS POSSIBILITIES: The Navy is assessing possible new weapons systems for the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, according to its program manager. Col. Dan Robinson told reporters that the Navy was "doing some trade studies and assessing exactly what the services are looking for" in terms of weapons to deploy on the aircraft, an attractive platform given its unique range and speeds.

ALSO TODAY - BEN RHODES IS NOT TESTIFYING ON IRAN: The White House said Monday that Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes "will not testify about the deal before a House committee, calling it a 'separation of powers' issue," writes our colleague Nahal Toosi. ... The decision is laid out in a letter Monday to House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz from White House counsel W. Neil Eggleston."

... BUT HE IS SPEAKING AT CNAS: Rhodes is scheduled to speak at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security this afternoon, on U.S. policy in Southeast Asia ahead of the president's trip later this month. And we suspect a certain profile of the deputy national security adviser will pop up during the Q&A session.

The House Armed Services Committee holds a hearing on foreign military sales this morning. And elsewhere in the think tank world, the Stimson Center hosts a panel discussion this morning on drone proliferation and the impact on security, strategy and policy.

** A message from BAE Systems: At BAE Systems, our engineers have created the technology to transform an unguided munition into a precision laser-guided rocket-the perfect low-cost, surgical strike solution. Learn more at www.baesystems.com/SAS. **

MORE NDAA FODDER - ONE FIGHT THAT WON'T BE REPEATED: RUSSIAN ROCKET ENGINES, our story here: "The congressional space war over military rocket launches and Russian rocket engines won't be fought on the House floor this week. House members who submitted pro-SpaceX and pro-United Launch Alliance amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act have withdrawn them ahead of the House floor debate. 

"The decision not to fight over the lucrative Air Force space launch contracts on the House floor means the provision that ULA won during the House Armed Services Committee markup - an amendment adopted by voice vote gave the Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture 18 Russian-made RD-180 engines for competitive launches - will remain in the House bill."

- NEW GROUPS WADE INTO THE CONGRESSIONAL SPACE WAR: The Tea Party Patriots is the latest organization taking sides in the fight over Russian rocket engines. The conservative organization has written a letter along with several other advocacy groups supporting ULA and accusing McCain of trying to "cripple America's ability to reliably launch some of the country's most important defense satellites." The letter, obtained by POLITICO, puts Tea Party Patriots on the opposite side of another conservative organization, Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, which wrote a letter in favor of SpaceX's position last month.

WAR REPORT - U.S., ALLIES WANT TO ARM LIBYAN GOVERNMENT, via The Associated Press: "In a move fraught with risk, the United States and other world powers said Monday they would supply Libya's internationally recognized government with weapons to counter the Islamic State and other militant groups gaining footholds in the chaos-wracked country's lawless regions. ... The U.S., the four other permanent U.N. Security Council members and more than 15 other nations said they would approve exemptions to a United Nations arms embargo to allow military sales and aid to Libya's so-called 'Government of National Accord.'"

TOP DOC - STUDY FINDS FEW OBSTACLES FOR LIFTING MILITARY'S TRANSGENDER BAN, reports The New York Times' Michael S. Schmidt: "A study commissioned by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter found that a small portion of service members are transgender and allowing them to serve openly in the military would cost little and have no significant impact on unit readiness. The study by the RAND Corporation estimated that 2,450 of the 1.2 million active-duty members of the military are transgender, and that every year around 65 will seek to transition to the other gender."

- FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The Times story - and the leaked RAND study - came one day after The Washington Post reported that the process for allowing transgender service members to serve openly had stalled amid resistance. Interestingly, the Times' editorial board also reported on the RAND study last month, as the Post noted in its piece.

SPEED READ

- The large protests in Kabul against the Afghan government bring the capital city to a halt: NYT

- World and regional powers meet in Vienna today to discuss the situation in Syria: AP

- The Pope criticizes the West for trying to export its own brand of democracy to countries like Iraq and Libya: Reuters

- Germany, Denmark and Poland top the U.S. in a NATO tank competition: The Washington Post

- The Marine Corps does not anticipate delays or cost overruns in the presidential helicopter replacement program: POLITICO Pro

- The 100-year-old Sykes-Picot Agreement that created the modern Middle East still looms over efforts to end the Syrian civil war: NYT

- The first successful penis transplant in the U.S. could give hope to veterans maimed by roadside bombs: AP

- The Pentagon says there is no need right now for additional U.S. troops in Iraq to directly fight the Islamic State: Military Times

- The U.S., South Korea and Japan will hold their first joint anti-missile exercises next month: Stars and Stripes

- North Korea names a career diplomat and ex-nuclear envoy as its new foreign minister: AP

- Navy personnel chief Vice Adm. Bill Moran is tapped to be the next vice chief of naval operations: Military Times

** A message from BAE Systems: At BAE Systems, we work relentlessly to stay ahead of any challenge our customers may face. Our passion and dedication shows in everything we do-from advanced electronic systems to cyber operations and intelligence analysis, from combat vehicles and naval weapons, and from ship maintenance and modernization to vehicle upgrades and services. Knowing that our work makes a difference inspires us to push ourselves and the technologies we create to new levels. That's BAE Systems. That's Inspired Work. Learn more about our technologies, systems and services at www.baesystems.com/US. **

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