Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee voted unanimously Nov. 15 to approve a new fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill that would include another $21 billion in cuts from the request.

Combined with a $6 billion cut the committee made in an earlier attempt during the summer to pass an authorization bill, the committee would authorize about $26.4 billion less than the Defense Department's request for base funding of $553 billion, for a total of about $526.6 billion. The bill now faces a full Senate vote.

The committee also cut $569 million from Energy Department defense efforts, including a $356 million for cleanup at former atomic weapons productions sites, a $168 million cut to a program for converting plutonium into mixed oxide fuel for nuclear reactors, and $45 million from the Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration program management budget.

Cuts to military programs include a $518.7 reduction for the Joint Tactical Radio System and a $224 million from the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical program.

DoD space programs, too, would come under the knife, with authorizers removing $233 million from the Family of Advanced Line of Sight Terminals, $105 million from the purchase of new Global Positioning System satellites, and $300 million from the long-term lease of a commercial satellite by the Defense Information Systems Agency.

The bill underwent revision by the committee largely due to provisions in the original version regarding the custody of terrorism suspects. Critics in the Obama administration and Congress said the committee's first attempt would have placed any captured member of al Qaeda under military detention, regardless of the place of his capture.

"As requested by the administration, the new bill would clarify that the section providing detention authority does not expand the existing authority to detain under the Authorization for Use of Military Force and make Guantanamo-related restrictions one-year requirements instead of permanent restrictions," SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement.

The re-written bill would also "clarify the president's authority to decide who makes determinations of coverage, how they are made, and when they are made," Levin's statement adds.

However, the changes aren't enough for some opponents. In a joint statement, Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said that "the so-called 'agreement' reached today in the Senate Armed Services Committee will only harm the efforts of intelligence and law enforcement officials to bring to justice those who would harm Americans here and abroad."

For more:
- download  SASC summary of cuts made during its Nov. 15 markup (.pdf)
- download a SASC statement on the roll call of the Nov. 15 markup (.pdf)

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