National Security Legislative Wrap-up, June 18-22 2007

Last week, the House completed -- except for earmarks to be dealt with later -- both the Fiscal Year 2008 Energy and Water Appropriations and the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bills. This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee will take up its version of the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. While the Defense Authorization Bill is likely to be considered after the 4th of July recess, it is possible the Senate may take up Iraq amendments related to this bill at the end of this week.

KEY NATIONAL SECURITY BILLS IN 2007

- ENERGY AND WATER APPROPRIATIONS BILL:

On June 20, the House completed action on all but the earmarks portion of the bill. While doing so, it rejected 121 - 312 a Udall (D-NM) amendment to transfer $192 million to the Los Alamos National Laboratory for nuclear weapons work.

- STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS APPROPRIATIONS BILL:

On June 21, the House adopted the bill by a vote of 241 – 178. The House adopted 365 - 69 a Shays (D-CT) amendment to provide $1 million to reconstitute the Iraq Study Group and approved by voice vote a Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) amendment to bar funding for the U.N. Human Rights Council. It rejected 205 – 219 an amendment by Rep. Wolf (R-VA) to increase funding for Iraq reconstruction aid by $158 million, 137 - 287 a Fox (R-NC) amendment to cut $203 million from the U.S. contribution to international organizations and 203 – 214 a McGovern (D-MA) amendment to eliminate funds for the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly the School of the Americas) located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

- DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL:

The full Senate is scheduled to consider the bill in July, but the timetable is up in the air.