Conference Report for the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2010

WASHINGTON — Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Ranking Member, announced today the contents of the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 conference report. The bill authorizes funding for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the national security programs of the Department of Energy (DOE).

“The conference report on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 reflects almost all of the decisions of the Secretary of Defense and the President to terminate troubled programs, delay programs for which requirements are not yet defined, and reorient programs and systems to deal with today’s threats and apply the lessons gained from more than seven years of war. This is a solid bipartisan bill that supports the men and women of the armed forces, both active and reserve, and their families, and provides them with the pay, benefits, equipment, and training that they need. The enactment of this conference report will send an important message to our troops that we, as a Nation, stand behind them and appreciate their service,” said Levin. “I thank Senator McCain for the hard work that he has put into the bill, and for the unflagging commitment that he has shown to our national security throughout his career in the Senate,” said Levin.

“I am happy to support the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 conference report which funds the needs and requirements of our brave men and women in uniform to succeed in their mission. Although I do not support every provision, I believe we have a good bill that fully funds the President’s budget request, increases benefits for our wounded warriors and provides an across-the-board pay raise for our soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines. I also want to thank Chairman Levin for his leadership and for his commitment to our troops and their families and all the Members of both sides of the aisle who worked so hard on this legislation. Our conference report reflects a bipartisan dedication to providing for our Nation’s defense. However, I am disappointed that this year’s conference report includes hate crimes legislation, which I continue to oppose, and funding for continued development of the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter,” said McCain.

Levin added: “I am particularly pleased that this conference report includes two landmark pieces of legislation from the Senate bill: the Military Commissions Act of 2009 and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The military commissions legislation would completely replace the procedures enacted in the Military Commissions Act of 2006, bring military commissions into compliance with the standard imposed by the Geneva Conventions and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hamdan case, and go a long way to ensure that any convictions obtained through military commissions will hold up on appeal and will be perceived as fair and just by the American public and by the rest of the world. The Hate Crimes legislation would, for the first time, give the Justice Department jurisdiction over crimes of violence which are committed not only because of a person’s race, color, religion, and national origin, which we already have on the books, but also based on gender, sexual orientation, or disability. The inclusion of this legislation in this – the last National Defense Authorization Act in which Senator Kennedy participated in his 26 years of service on the Armed Services Committee – is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Senators in the history of this body.”

View the full release, including the detailed description by subcommittee, here. [PDF]

MAJOR CONFERENCE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

Note: This section describes major provisions contained in the conference agreement. Some items are repeated in the Detailed Description section following these highlights.

1. Provide fair compensation and first-rate health care, address the needs of the wounded, ill, and injured, and improve the quality of life of the men and women of the all-volunteer force (active duty, National Guard and Reserves) and their families.

• Authorizes $164 billion for military personnel, including costs of pay, allowances, bonuses, survivor benefits, permanent change of station moves, and military health care.

• Authorizes a 3.4 percent across-the-board pay raise, 0.5 percent above the budget request and the annual increase in the Employment Cost Index.

• Authorizes FY2010 active-duty end strengths for: the Army of 562,400; the Marine Corps, of 202,100; the Air Force, of 331,700; and the Navy, of 328,800.

• Authorizes the Secretary of Defense to increase the Army’s active-duty end strength by 30,000 above 2010 levels during FY2011 and FY2012 if sufficient funding is requested in the budgets for those fiscal years.

• Prevents increases in copayments for inpatient care at civilian hospitals under TRICARE Standard during FY2010.

• Authorizes full funding for the Defense Health Program.

• Authorizes special compensation for designated caregivers for the assistance they provide to service members with catastrophic injuries or illnesses when, in the absence of that assistance, the service member would require hospitalization or institutional care.

• Extends eligibility for TRICARE Standard to reserve component area retirees who have not yet reached age 60, also known as gray area retirees.

2. Provide our service men and women with the resources, training, technology, equipment (especially force protection), and authorities they need to succeed in combat and stability operations.

• Provides $6.7 billion for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Vehicles, an increase of $1.2 billion above the President’s budget request to fund the requirement for MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles (M-ATV) being deployed to Afghanistan.

• Adds $600 million, for a total of $6.9 billion, to address equipment shortfalls in the National Guard and Reserves.

• Provides full funding for most Army programs, including: AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Blackhawk, UH-72 Lakota, OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, and CH-47 Chinook helicopters; M1 Abrams tank and M2 Bradley infantry vehicle modernization; and Patriot air defense missile systems.

• Provides $100 million for the Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station (CROWS) program. This unfunded requirement was identified by the Army Chief of Staff.

• Provides full funding at the budget request level for most Navy programs, including: Carrier Replacement Program; Virginia-class submarine; DDG-1000; DDG-51; Littoral Combat Ship (LCS); T-AKE dry cargo/ammunition ship; and V-22 aircraft.

• Provides an additional $512 million to buy 18 F/A-18E/F aircraft, rather than nine aircraft as requested, and authorizes the full request for 22 EA-18G aircraft.

• Provides conditional authority for the Secretary of the Navy to enter into a multiyear procurement contract for F/A-18E/F and EA-18G aircraft procurement, and provides an additional $108 million in advance procurement to support a possible multiyear procurement, only if that multiyear contract fully complies with the requirements of multiyear contracting law.

• Terminates production of the F-22A aircraft, as requested by DOD.

• Provides $430 million to continue development of the F136 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine, and $130 million to begin Air Force procurement of the F136 engine.

3. Enhance the capability of the armed forces to conduct counterinsurgency operations and apply the lessons of Iraq to Afghanistan, as appropriate.

• Authorizes full funding for the President’s request for $7.5 billion to train and equip the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police.

• Allows the Secretary of Defense, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, to transfer U.S. defense articles currently located in Iraq to the security forces of Iraq or the security forces of Afghanistan to support their efforts to provide for internal security.

• Authorizes up to $1.3 billion for the Commanders’ Emergency Response Program (CERP) in Iraq and Afghanistan for humanitarian relief and reconstruction projects and authorizes using CERP funds to support the Afghanistan National Solidarity Program to promote Afghan-led community development.

• Provides oversight of the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Fund, to be resourced with up to $700 million transferred from the State Department, for building the capability of Pakistan’s military forces, police forces, and Frontier Corps to conduct counterinsurgency operations.

• Extends the authority for DOD to transfer up to $100 million to the State Department to support State Department programs for security and stabilization assistance.

• Stipulates that funds available for DOD’s program to build the capacity of partner nations (“Section 1206”) may be used to build the capacity of coalition partners in Iraq and Afghanistan to conduct stabilization operations and special operations.

4. Improve the ability of the armed forces to counter nontraditional threats, including terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.

• Provides more than $2 billion for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) in the Overseas Contingency Operations component of the budget request.

• Funds fully the President’s $1.57 billion budget request for Chemical and Biological Defense programs.

• Authorizes the budget request for the addition of $700 million to field additional THAAD and Standard Missile-3 theater missile defense systems, and authorizes an increase of $23 million for procurement of additional Standard Missile-3 interceptors.

• Authorizes the budget request for the addition of $200 million for conversion of six additional Aegis ships for missile defense capabilities.

• Provides an additional $20 million for the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program at DOD and limited additional authorities to the CTR Program and the Nonproliferation Program at DOE to utilize funding, notwithstanding any other provision of law, to meet urgent requirements.

5. Seek to reduce our Nation’s strategic risk by taking action aimed at restoring the readiness of the military services to conduct the full range of their assigned missions.

• Funds readiness and depot maintenance programs to ensure that forces preparing to deploy are trained and their equipment is ready.

• Adds $70 million in aviation depot maintenance in support of the Navy’s unfunded requirement to increase readiness.

• Adds $15 million for the DOD Inspector General (IG) second year growth plan that will enable the IG to increase oversight of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, contract management and acquisitions, and support audits to identify potential waste, fraud, and abuse.

6. Terminate troubled programs and activities, improve efficiencies, and apply the savings to higher-priority programs.

• Future Combat System (FCS)—Reduces $27 million from the FCS Non-Line of Sight Cannon and $184 million FCS Manned Ground Vehicle programs for excess termination liability.

• Supports termination of the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) program, which had significant technical challenges and was not consistent with the Secretary’s missile defense policy guidance.

• Supports termination of the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program, which had serious technology, affordability, and operational problems.

• Supports cancellation of the second Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft, and refocuses the ABL program as a technology research effort. The ABL had significant affordability and technology problems and the program’s proposed operational role was highly questionable.

• Reduces $209.5 million for the C-130 avionics modernization program (AMP) due to delays in the production program.

• Provides authority for temporary reduction in aircraft carrier force levels, as requested by DOD. Otherwise, the Navy would have had to spend more than $1 billion to extend the service life of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

7. Ensure aggressive and thorough oversight of DOD’s programs and activities to ensure proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars and compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

• Requires the Army to ensure that former FCS spin out early-infantry brigade combat team equipment is technologically mature, adequately tested, and has realistic and reliable cost estimates.

• Approves the Navy’s plan to change the acquisition strategy for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, by conducting a winner-take-all down select for two ships in FY2010, with fixed-price options for two ships per year for the next four years thereafter.

• Requires that DOD treat the LCS as a Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP).

• Requires that the Navy conduct certain analyses before committing any funds to buy a future surface combatant after FY2011.

OTHER KEY PROVISIONS

The conference report contains the Military Commissions Act of 2009, which would replace the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The new legislation would ensure a fair and impartial process that is closer to the process used in trials by courts-martial by: (1) precluding the use of coerced testimony; (2) limiting the use of hearsay testimony; (3) establishing new procedures for handling classified information, based on the Classified Information Protection Act, which is applicable in the civilian courts; (4) providing defendants with access to witnesses and documentary evidence comparable to the access available to defendants in civilian courts; and (5) requiring that defendants be provided appropriate representation and adequate resources.

The conference report contains the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would: (1) prohibit hate crimes based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person; (2) provide support for the criminal investigation and prosecution of hate crimes by State, local, and tribal law enforcement officials; and (3) prohibit attacks on United States service members based on their military service.

The conference report repeals the authority for the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) and requires the transition of NSPS employees to previously existing civilian personnel systems, while providing DOD with new personnel flexibilities – in the areas of hiring and assigning personnel and appraising employee performance – that would extend across the entire DOD civilian workforce. The Secretary of Defense would be afforded an opportunity to propose additional personnel flexibilities, if he determines that such flexibilities would be in the best interest of DOD.

The conference report includes provisions that would: (1) prohibit the use of contractor employees to conduct detainee interrogations; (2) require that detainee strategic interrogations be videotaped; (3) require DOD to provide the International Committee of the Red Cross prompt access to detainees in DOD custody at Bagram, Afghanistan; and (4) prohibit military and intelligence officials from reading Miranda warnings to foreign nationals in the custody of DOD who are captured and detained outside the United States as enemy belligerents.

The conference report also prohibits the release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States, its territories, or possessions for the period beginning on October 1, 2009 and ending on December 31, 2010. Prior to any transfer of detainees to the United States, its territories, or possessions, the President would be required to provide a comprehensive disposition plan to Congress at least 45 days prior to the transfer of any detainee, including a risk assessment relating to the transfer, a proposal for disposition, the risk mitigation measures to be taken, the location or locations where the detainee would be held, the costs associated with executing the plan including technical and financial assistance to be provided to state and local law enforcement, and a summary of required consultations with State officials regarding the transfer.

View the full release, including the detailed description by subcommittee, here. [PDF]