House passes defense measure

WASHINGTON — The House passed a $554 billion annual defense measure Thursday that includes an all-weather weapons training site at Fort Drum, gives soldiers a 3.4 percent raise and takes steps toward reversing controversial Bush administration policies for the civilian defense work force.

The annual defense authorization bill passed by 389-22. Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, voted in favor.

As the House wrapped up its bill, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved its own version, including the raise but not the limitations on the personnel rules, which will be worked out during floor debate or during a House-Senate conference later this summer. Full details, including Fort Drum projects, were not available Thursday afternoon after the Senate committee's closed session.

Other issues that remain to be resolved are funding for some key weapons systems and fighter jets — the White House threatened to veto the House bill over increased funding for the F-22 fighter — and the use of military commissions to prosecute suspected terrorists. Lawmakers also are likely to debate how to handle detainees once the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is closed, an issue the Senate committee decided to leave to the full Senate.

For Fort Drum, the House bill advances an $8.2 million all-weather marksmanship facility that would be the second such site on the post. The bill also includes the Obama administration's requests for a $57 million barracks, a $21 million warrior-in-transition facility to serve soldiers who have been wounded in combat, and a $6.5 million water system expansion.

Mr. McHugh sponsored the marksmanship facility. He also helped secure $430,000 for the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization; $5 million to Clarkson University in Potsdam and ITT in Rome to study offensive cyber campaigns; $8 million to the Trudeau Institute at Saranac Lake to continue studying flu vaccines for the Navy, and $2 million to Legend Technologies in Keeseville to develop and produce a remote sighting system for robotic military operations.

He praised the bill's passage and, in a press release, said he was "pleased that the bill includes funding for important projects in our district that will provide benefit to our troops and their families."

If he is confirmed as Army secretary, Mr. McHugh will oversee the Army's portion of the defense bill and play a major role in some of the policy changes and debates Congress directs the Pentagon to undertake.

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo, said in a statement, "U.S. military readiness has been sorely tested by more than seven years of war and rebuilding readiness must be a top priority. Toward this goal, the bill provides critical funding for Army and Marine Corps reset, addresses equipment shortfalls in the National Guard and Reserve, and provides the full amount needed to take care of our base facilities and infrastructure."

One point of contention in the House was cuts to missile defense programs, which several Republicans criticized and which will likely be addressed again as the Senate bill moves forward.

The House bill takes on the Defense Department's contracting out of civilian jobs to private companies through competitions and sets a path for reversing in one year the National Security Personnel System, which established a pay-for-performance system and eased the hiring, firing and moving of employees. The Senate expressed reservations about the NSPS but did not order it scaled back in any way.

In the Senate, the Armed Services Committee decided that military commissions have a "legitimate role" in trying terror suspects, but only if they meet U.S. Supreme Court standards for fair treatment. The committee agreed upon a "very carefully crafted provision" spelling out procedures for such commissions, said Chairman Sen. Carl M. Levin, D-Mich.

"We worked very closely with the White House on this," Mr. Levin said at a press conference, joined by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the panel's ranking Republican.

Among other standards, he said, lawmakers decided the commissions may not consider coerced testimony and spelled out when hearsay is admissible. A few areas remain unresolved, said Mr. Levin, adding that he hopes leaders can reach agreement by the time the Senate considers the bill the week after next.

Mr. McCain said "we have come a long, long way" on military commissions. Congress still has to work out where to put detainees once Guantanamo is closed and how to handle prisoners when U.S. officials want to neither quickly try nor release them, he said.

"We are not going to be out of this kind of conflict for a long, long time," Mr. McCain said.