Major Senate Amendments to FY08 Defense Authorization Bill

At about 10:30 AM today, the Senate will begin consideration of amendments to the Defense Authorization bill (S. 3001). As yet, there is no unanimous consent agreement guiding what kind of and how many amendments will be considered, although four amendments have been queued up for today. Highlighted below are amendments related to nuclear weapons and nonproliferation issues.

Amendments pending and could be considered today:

Missile defense

Sens. Vitter (R-LA), Inhofe (R-OK) and Kyl (R-AZ) offered amendment No. 5280 to increase missile defense funding: $100 million for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and $171 million for other missile defense programs, including up to $87 million for the Ground Based Midcourse Defense.

Missile defense

Sens. Kyl (R-AZ), Vitter (R-LA) and Inouye (D-HI) offered amendment No. 5295 earmarking $89 million to deploy the missile defense X-band radar at a classified location.

Amendments filed thus far:

Providing assistance in major attacks

Sen. Feingold (D-WI) filed amendment No.5300 requiring the establishment Within the Armed Forces of units for assistance in managing consequences of incidents of national significance involving a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, or Nuclear Device, or High-Yield Explosives.