Senate Considers Debating S 1579 – FY 2018 NDAA

Yesterday the Senate agreed to begin debating the consideration of S 1579, the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. This was the original senate version of the NDAA that served as the template for McCain’s substitute language for HR 2810 that was passed in the Senate last week. This is an unusual move as the House has yet to consider the Senate amendments to HR 2810. Even if the House were to reject the Senate amendments there would still be the resulting conference committee to work out the differences in the two versions.

Earlier in the day the Senate did make a minor correction to the wording of two amendments that were adopted on the floor, SA 1065 (pg S 5760) and SA 1086 (pg S 5768). Both amendments made changes to the funding tables in §4301, but they failed to include the words: “At the end of Division F add the following:” at the start of the amendment. The adjustments were made under the unanimous consent procedure, the way minor editorial errors are normally corrected post-passage. This should not be the reason for the consideration of S 1579.

There is no explanation of the consideration of this bill in the Congressional Record today, nor have I seen anything in the national news. I am going to keep an eye on this.