House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said today Democrats and Republicans in Congress have the votes necessary to override President Trump if he vetoes the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill.
Congress
December 7, 2020
Rep. Mac Thornberry (TX), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said today the "message has been conveyed" to the White House that Congress will be prepared to override President Trump should he make good on threats to veto the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill.
December 7, 2020
House and Senate conferees have agreed to include major cybersecurity pieces in the annual defense policy bill, creating a National Cyber Director and adopting other proposals that will make the legislation "the most significant cyber bill Congress has ever passed," according to Cyberspace Solarium Commission senior adviser Mark Montgomery.
December 4, 2020
The compromise fiscal year 2021 defense policy bill does not include strict "Buy American" requirements for weapons programs after defense industry groups and foreign governments lobbied against them.
December 4, 2020
The final version of the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill significantly ramps up oversight of the Advanced Battle Management System and directs the Air Force to produce a series of cost and planning documents the service has sought to bypass.
December 4, 2020
The final version of the fiscal year 2021 defense policy bill includes a number of spacelift provisions, directing the creation of a certification and innovation fund, a tactically responsive space launch program and an acquisition strategy for small satellite launch.
December 4, 2020
House and Senate negotiators have included a second Virginia-class submarine in the final 2021 defense authorization bill.
December 4, 2020
The final version of the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill limits the Air Force's near-term plans to retire some legacy aircraft, but moves away from provisions included in earlier drafts that would have set minimum aircraft levels for major mission areas.
December 3, 2020
House and Senate negotiators today released a final version of the $740.5 billion fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill that President Trump has threatened to block.
December 3, 2020
The Navy and Marine Corps have acted to improve readiness, but the ongoing pandemic and the damaging fire on the Bonhomme Richard will take a toll, the Government Accountability Office told lawmakers this week.
December 2, 2020
Congress will receive a briefing on the Navy's new force design plan tomorrow, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said Wednesday at a Senate Armed Services readiness and management support subcommittee hearing.
December 2, 2020
The Navy is considering fast-tracking the acquisition of a big-deck vessel to replace the fire-damaged amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said Wednesday.
December 2, 2020
The House and Senate are ready to proceed with a defense authorization bill that could draw a veto from President Trump because it includes a measure to remove the names of Confederate leaders from U.S. military bases and does not include a repeal of legal immunity for social media companies, according to lawmakers and staffers.
December 1, 2020
The outgoing Trump administration opposes several measures in the Senate version of the fiscal year 2021 defense spending bill, including proposed cuts to experimental weapons programs, according to a new letter from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
November 25, 2020
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is calling the Air Force's decision this week to reveal four preferred alternative Air National Guard C-130J bases -- including one in Georgia -- a politically motivated move that muddies the service's strategic basing process.
November 19, 2020
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA), who is negotiating a final defense authorization bill, said he is confident President Trump will not veto the bill, but only because he believes Senate Republicans would never agree to anything that would force the president's hand.
November 19, 2020
U.S. Cyber Command's key warfighting programs lack interoperability goals such as data tagging standards, potentially putting at risk the ability of those systems to share information and work in coordination, according to the Government Accountability Office.
November 19, 2020
In a new survey of 46 Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, the Government Accountability Office found that only three met their mission-capable goals in most fiscal years between FY-11 and FY-19 -- demonstrating the readiness and cost implications of the military's aging aircraft fleet.
November 18, 2020
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) today said Democrats currently lack a winning national message and urged nuclear arms control advocates to focus more on the deterrence of war and less on eliminating the ultra-destructive U.S. arsenal.
November 17, 2020
The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee said today he is concerned that "political calculations" over renaming military bases currently honoring Confederate leaders, along with two U.S. Senate election runoffs in Georgia, are threatening to scuttle the annual defense policy bill that has passed for 59 consecutive years.