S 2943 Passed in Senate – FY 2017 NDAA

Yesterday the Senate completed consideration of S 2943, the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. One additional amendment was adopted and then the bill passed by a strongly bipartisan vote of 85-13.

None of the amendments adopted during the consideration of this bill included cybersecurity language. The original bill did include significant cybersecurity provisions, including a requirement for DOD to conduct a cyber-informed engineering pilot program.

The House passed its own version of the NDAA (HR 4909) last month by a more partisan vote. There will almost certainly be a conference committee to iron out the differences between the two bills.

According to TheHill.com: “The White House is threatening to veto the Senate version [of the NDAA] over several of its policy provisions, including restrictions on Guantanamo Bay detainee transfers and a cap on the size of the White House National Security Council staff.” There were more than enough Yea votes on S 2943 to overcome a veto, so it is not clear that such a veto would actually be forthcoming if those provisions made it into the compromise bill.