OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Lawmakers consider NSA changes

by Jeremy Herb and Carlo Muñoz - 06/11/13 11:14 PM ET

The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat on Tuesday said he did not
believe the effort would get far. “I encourage this, though I think it is
going to be ill-fated,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

“I think they are going to eventually turn us
down,” he said of the White House’s response to declassifying FISA court
opinions.

“They are [just] going to say no,” he said.

{mosads}The White House said Congress had been briefed on the
operations, but many lawmakers say they were unaware of the programs and are
demanding more information.

Senate Intelligence Committee member Susan Collins (R-Maine)
said the first time she had heard of either NSA program is “when it broke
in the news.”

That said, a possible compromise to the Markey-Wyden bill,
Durbin said, would be having more lawmakers outside the Armed Services and
Intelligence panels briefed on programs similar to the NSA surveillance
operations.

“I think that is a good option,” Durbin said.

Levin proposes NDAA sexual
assault alternative: Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) on
Tuesday said he would be proposing an alternative to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s
(D-N.Y.) bill to tackle military sexual assault.

Levin’s proposal would require a review any time a commander
decides not to pursue a sexual assault case. It also makes retaliation against
a victim a crime.

That does not go as far as Gillibrand’s bill, which would
give military prosecutors the decision to prosecute sexual assault cases.

Gillibrand’s measure was included in the Personnel
subcommittee markup that passed on Tuesday. Gillibrand is chairwoman of the
subcommittee.

Levin told reporters, however, that he will be pushing his
alternative to replace Gillibrand’s language in the defense authorization bill.

The sexual assault portion of the committee’s authorization
markup will be opened up in a rare move by the committee.

Levin cites brass to
fight East Coast missile site: Levin also launched a pre-emptive strike
against a potential third missile defense site Tuesday, releasing letters from
military commanders who say it is unnecessary.

Levin’s letters pushed back at the House Armed Services
panel, which included $140 million to begin construction for ground-based
interceptors at a new site on the East Coast.

The debate over a third East Coast missile site tends to
fall along party lines, and Levin and the Democrats are expected to block GOP
attempts to include the site in the Senate’s defense authorization bill.

Levin wrote to the military to make his case before
Wednesday’s full committee markup of the bill.

He received a response from Missile Defense Agency Director
Vice Adm. J.D. Syring and Lt. Gen. Richard Formica, the military’s joint
operational commander for missile defense, who wrote: “There is no validated
military requirement to deploy an East Coast missile site.”

Last year, the House included language to build the East
Coast missile site, while the Senate did not. In conference committee, they
agreed to conduct an environmental impact study for a potential third
interceptor location.

Busy day for the
Pentagon on Capitol Hill: There will be a flurry of defense-related activity
on Capitol Hill Wednesday as the defense authorization and
appropriations bills continue to move forward.

Six committees will take up legislation or host senior
Pentagon leaders for hearings.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey will appear before both the Senate and House Budget
committees on Wednesday in back-to-back appearances, the Pentagon pair’s final
posture hearings of the year.

While they are in the Senate hearing room, the House Appropriations
Committee will be marking up the defense spending bill, which allocates $512
billion in base Pentagon discretionary spending.

The full House is also taking up the defense authorization
bill on Wednesday, with the bulk of the action on the bill expected to occur on
the bill on Thursday.

On the Senate side of the chamber, the Senate Armed Services
Committee will begin its markup of the defense authorization bill Wednesday.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, is hosting
Gen. Keith Alexander, U.S. Cyber Command chief and director of the National
Security Agency. He’s testifying to talk about cybersecurity, but senators will
have plenty of questions about the recent disclosure of NSA surveillance
programs.