Statement of Administration Policy: S. 1352 - National Defense Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1990

(Senate)
(Sen. Nunn (D) Georgia)

The Administration commends the Senate Armed Services Committee for supporting the majority of the critical items which were requested for fiscal year 1990. S. 1352 conforms with the Bipartisan Budget Agreement and the Administration has no objection to Senate passage of the bill. However, the Administration will seek to have certain program authorization levels reallocated to make them consistent with the Administration's request. Specifically, the Administration urges that the President's request for the B-2 and SDI programs be fully authorized.

Moreover, the Administration objects to the provision limiting SDI testing activities, and urges its deletion from the bill. Such limits are unnecessary, and would undercut our broader arms reduction efforts by appearing to advocate unilateral concessions to the Soviets while negotiations are taking place. In addition, limitations on the obligation of B-2 program funds should be eliminated.

S. 1352 also contains highly objectionable provisions that the Administration will seek to delete or amend, including:

— Prohibiting the Secretary of Defense from paying rent to the General Services Administration (GSA) until such time as "funding for renovations of the Pentagon Building has been completed" or until September 1999, whichever is earlier. The provision, which has no geographical limitation, could be applied nationally. This provision would seriously, if not totally, impair the ability of the GSA to conduct its real estate operations on behalf of all Federal agencies, including DOD activities nationwide.

— Intruding into internal Executive branch deliberations regarding the negotiation or renegotiation of armaments cooperation agreements (e-g..,. the FS-X codevelopment program) between the United States and foreign countries, thereby infringing on the President's authority.

— Requiring the Defense Department to establish procedures for controlling expenditures ind for making reports to Congress on expenditures. Such procedures could lead to costly, burdensome systems that would establish new layers of bureaucracy contrary to Administration efforts to streamline Defense management. These procedures could also impair execution of the FY 1990 defense program.

S. 1352 would also waive current pay limits for critical science and engineering employees in the Departments of Defense (500 employees) and Energy (25 employees). S. 1352 would also waive existing conflict-of-interest requirements for certain of the 25 Energy employees. This approach does not address these important matters on a govemmentwide basis, as do the President's proposals for ethics reform and special pay authority. The Administration urges that the: (1) President's proposal for governmentwide special pay authority be adopted and the pay provisions for Defense and Energy be modified to be consistent with the President's proposal; and (2) conflict-of-interest provisions be amended to conform with the President's "Government-Wide Ethics Act of 1989."