NDAA hung up over wall, Space Force Presented by Northrop Grumman

With Connor O’Brien, Wesley Morgan and Jacqueline Feldscher

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Quick Fix


— No compromise yet for the defense policy bill, but lawmakers still have one more day.

— President Donald Trump has signed a continuing resolution, averting a government shutdown and giving lawmakers another month to hash out spending bill problems.

— Trump says Chief Eddie Gallagher will keep his SEAL trident.

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On the Hill

NDAA STUCK: House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith said this week he was confident negotiators could strike a deal on the National Defense Authorization Act by week’s end.

But that may be a no-go, as debates over funding for Trump’s southern border wall and the creation of the Space Force remain hurdles to the House and Senate coming up with a compromise bill for defense policy, our colleague Connor O’Brien writes.

“Speaking to reporters off the House floor, Smith said Senate Republicans are insisting on leaving any border wall limits to leaders of the Appropriations committees. The Senate is also insisting on its plan to stand up a Space Force.”

"There's substantial opposition within my caucus to both of those two things, and we're having a hard time trying to get around that," Smith said.

Another hurdle: “Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) says Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding that provisions related to toxic PFAS chemicals be included in the National Defense Authorization Act,” POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna writes.

"It says unless we have her PFAS language, she will not bring the bill up for a vote in the House," Inhofe said. "Once you make that statement, you know something is not sellable."

Related: "Sources: Trump admin delaying action on PFAS cleanups," via POLITICO's Annie Snider.

That's not all: While Inhofe sniped at Pelosi, Smith ripped Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has accused House Democrats of slow-walking the defense negotiations and prioritizing impeachment over funding the troops.

"Sen. Inhofe is negotiating in good faith. He's in there talking, but meanwhile his leader is out saying Democrats don't want to do a defense bill because they're partisan impeachment hacks," Smith said. "So I worry that at the end of the day, McConnell may not want a bill, that what McConnell may want is the ability to blame us for not having a bill."

What’s next: Negotiators will work today to come up with a compromise. Congress is out next week for the Thanksgiving holiday, which means any more action will have to wait until early December.

NDAA links: House version | Senate version

SHUTDOWN? WHAT SHUTDOWN? Trump on Thursday night signed a new continuing resolution to keep the government’s lights on for another month, avoiding a government shutdown, POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma writes.

The Senate had passed the CR on Thursday. It maintains fiscal 2019 funding levels, yet provides a 3.1 percent pay raise for the military.

Now comes the trickier part: Coming together on thorny issues such as wall funding in time to pass all 12 appropriations bills by the end of the year.

CRs suck, continued: The Army’s top civilian on Thursday laid out the pain that continuing resolutions are causing, the latest in a series of warnings from top military leaders, O’Brien writes.

"From a readiness standpoint, we had to notify our commands, oh, about a month, 45 days ago, to reduce your investment or expenditures in operations and maintenance by two percent. So you started turning the knob down on training," Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the American Enterprise Institute. "So you're immediately starting to decline."

Pentagon

Sailors must go through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training before they can earn their trident. | Naval Special Warfare Command

BATTLE OF THE TRIDENT: Trump on Thursday morning jumped about 20 levels down in the chain of command and directed the Navy not to take away the SEAL trident belonging to Chief Eddie Gallagher, days before a Navy review board was to decide whether the sailor should stay a SEAL, our colleague Wesley Morgan reports.

“The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin,” Trump tweeted. “This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!”

Gallagher was acquitted of war crimes charges but convicted of taking a photo with a corpse. Rear Adm. Collin Green, the Navy’s top SEAL, opted to have a review board decide whether Gallagher keeps his trident badge, and had the support all the way up to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley.

“This is such a stunning breach of how the military operates that those are the right questions to ask. Nobody can do their job the way they ought to, and the way the law says they should, with this kind of interference,” said Ray Mabus, who was a Navy secretary in the Obama administration.

The Navy later said it would comply with Trump’s order but was awaiting further guidance because all they had was a tweet.

Related: “‘Insurgents’ lobbied Trump for war crimes pardons with little Pentagon involvement, officials say,” via The Washington Post.

Industry Intel

NO DELAY: “Modifications to the Air Force’s request for proposals for space launches services will not delay the contract award, its acquisition chief said” Thursday, our colleague Jacqueline Feldscher writes.

“The Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement RFP stipulated that the Air Force would select two launch providers that provided the best value to the government ‘when combined.’ But Blue Origin, which is competing for the contract, protested the wording with the Government Accountability Office, arguing that it is ambiguous about how the Pentagon will evaluate individual bids.”

Happening Today

HALIFAX GETS STARTED: The Halifax Security Forum gets underway this afternoon and features participants from 80 countries. Top speakers include national security adviser Robert O’Brien; Navy Secretary Richard Spencer; Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.); Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Phil Davidson; Northern Command chief Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy; and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz.

The full agenda is here.

Space

NEW MINDSET: The nascent Space Development Agency, designed to cut through the red tape of the military’s notoriously slow space acquisition system, is trying to use some of the startup mentality of Silicon Valley.

Michael Brown, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit in Mountain View, Calif., says he linked up with the SDA’s new director, Derek Tournear. “That’s a very easy conversation to have,” Brown said. “We want him to think about us as the commercial source. So not everything he's going to be looking for is commercial, but to the extent he has needs where there is a commercial development happening, we can be a source for him on where the company is. How can we prototype to help them get capability faster?”

Making Moves

Mira Ricardel, a former deputy national security adviser, is now a principal at The Chertoff Group.

Speed Read

— U.S. to Europe: Fix Open Skies Treaty or we quit: Defense News

— Trump officials meet with Libyan politician aligned with opposition ‘strongman’ in potential policy shift: Defense One

— Trump honors fallen soldiers as House continues impeachment hearings: POLITICO

— Military: 2 airmen killed in crash during Oklahoma training: The Associated Press

— Q&A: Defense Innovation Unit Director Michael Brown: POLITICO Pro

— The U.S.’s quest for military unity on China comes up short in Asia: The Wall Street Journal

— Japan, South Korea agree to save expiring intel pact, NHK says: Bloomberg

— SecDef Esper, don’t make Gates’ mistakes with Night Court: Breaking Defense

Follow us on Twitter Dave Brown @dave_brown24



Bryan Bender @bryandbender



Connor O'Brien @connorobriennh



Jacqueline Feldscher @jacqklimas



Lara Seligman @laraseligman