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National Defense Authorization Act for 2022 is in the Senate


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The 2022 NDAA, H.R. 4350, has passed the House. It is now under consideration in the Senate. Senators have thus far proposed 791 amendments to the House bill. That's right, 791.

https://www.airforcemag.com/2022-ndaa-amendments-senate-starts-process/

If you want to read them, or just some of them, you can scan through the Congressional Record-Senate of Nov. 16, 2021, which you can obtain here:

https://www.congress.gov/117/crec/2021/11/16/167/199/CREC-2021-11-16-senate.pdf

As you will see, some of the proposed amendments are many pages in length. Most of them do not address contracting. Some of them are seemly unrelated to national defense.

For information about the Senate amendment process see Congressional Research Service, The Amending Process in the Senate (2015).

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/98-853

Title VIII of the House bill, "Acquisition Policy, Acquisition Management, and Related Matters," contains 71 sections. Stand by for more rules.

Our Federal legislative process is wacky. When it comes to annual NDAAs it is absolutely bonkers.

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  • 4 weeks later...

To get the NDAA approved quickly, S. 1605 was used as a vehicle.  S. 1605 was a bill to designate the National Pulse Memorial located at 1912 South Orange Avenue in Orlando, Florida, and for other purposes

For our purpose, it is the National Pulse Memorial bill.  On December 7, 2021, the National Pulse Memorial bill was considered and amended by the House with the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 as a substitute.  S. 1605 was passed on December 7, 2021.  On December 15, 2021, S. 1605 passed the Senate without amendment.  Since the House and the Senate both approved S. 1605 without any disagreement there will not be a conference report.  

I expect an explanation for the various provisions to come soon.  

 

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Apparently, the House and Senate Armed Services Committee members (and their staffs) realized they would be unable to complete consideration of the 2 House and Senate versions of the NDAA Act of 2022, hold a conference to iron out difference between the 2 bills, and agree on the conference report.  They had less than a month to do that before they left for the calendar year.  Instead, some members of the 2 Armed Services Committees and their staffs negotiated the differences between the 2 bills and reached agreement on what the NDAA would look like.  Just think of it as a "truce."

In one year with a similar situation, a document was written to explain what the committee members agreed to in their truce.  That document was called a "Joint Explanatory Statement"  Once again the Armed Services members used the JOINT EXPLANATORY STATEMENT TO ACCOMPANY THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2022 Now the explanatory document was completed on December 5, 2021 before the House and Senate even considered a bill on which to vote.  To do it, they found a bill to amend with a substitute, in this case the NDAA for 2022.  Agreement had to be reached not to amend the new NDAA as it floated through both houses.  The selected bill was S. 1605,  to designate the National Pulse Memorial located at 1912 South Orange Avenue in Orlando, Florida, and for other purposes.  That explains the S. 1605 bill number.

Both Houses agreed to the NDAA for 2022 as explained in my earlier post and the effective legislative history is the Joint Explanatory Statement.  I found a nice explanation of this process in an earlier effort and I wil post it later if I find it again.  I assume that the White House has agreed to all of this to make the actual signing of the NDAA of 2022 a Public Law, without a veto, soon

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This explains part of the process used.  The document is datad 12/7/2021

Quote

Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today released the text of an agreement they have reached on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22).

“We are pleased to announce we’ve come to a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. This year’s agreement continues the Armed Services Committees’ 61-year tradition of working together to support our troops and strengthen national security. We urge Congress to pass the NDAA quickly and the President to sign it when it reaches his desk,” the members said.

The legislative text is available here:

This legislation is substantially based on two bills: (1) H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which passed the House on September 23 by a vote of 316-113; and (2) S. 2792, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 21 by a vote of 23-3.  

Because enacting the NDAA in a timely manner is critical, the two bills were combined through a series of negotiations led by the leadership of the HASC and SASC. Negotiators considered proposals offered by members of both parties that were filed in the Senate. The final text of the bill promotes resilience, innovation, and the right tools for U.S. success in strategic competition, and provides vital quality of life improvements for the backbone of America’s fighting force: Our service members and their families. 

 

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S. 1605, The NDAA Act for FY 2022.

I looked at Congress.gov and found that it is still referring users to an outdated bill as the NDAA Act for FY 2022.  In fact, the outdated bill is the most viewed by users.  As of 12/23/21, S 1605, The NDAA for FY 2022 is now at the White House ready for signing.  When you look at S. 1605, it does not look like what it is because of the way it was passed in Congress.  It will be signed into law within the next several days.

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PS:  I'm beginning to do the Wifcon analysis now and will be done by New Years Day.  Read my past several posts if you are wondering what is current.

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