Rep. Mac Thornberry’s draft of the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill will make major changes to the military’s organizational structure, including elevating the stature of U.S. Cyber Command in the military structure.
The reforms are part of the wide-ranging updates to the 30-year-old Goldwater-Nichols law that the Texas Republican has been promising for months.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is expected to release his markup of the National Defense Authorization Bill on Monday with a top line of $610 billion. That total amount matches the president’s request, but shifts $18 billion from the overseas war account to the base budget. The committee will then meet Wednesday to mark up the bill during an all-night session, where members will have the chance to offer amendments.
In addition to establishing Cyber Command as its own geographic command, on par with Central Command and Pacific Command, House Armed Services Committee staffers said Friday that the bill will require a study to examine separating Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, which now operate now together under one dual-hatted general officer.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter suggested this month that he was considering elevating the military’s cyberarm.
Thornberry would also make changes to the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, including increasing the president’s chief military adviser’s tenure from two years to four years, staggered from the presidential election cycle to increase stability during transition in the White House.
The bill would also officially codify the chairman’s function to advise the defense secretary on the transfer of troops between geographic regions, a role Gen. Joseph Dunford fills today, even though it’s not an official part of his job description, the staff said.
Service members who want to climb the ranks of the military currently must serve three years in a joint billet, a requirement set up under Goldwater-Nichols to decrease competition between the services. The chairman’s mark would reduce the minimum tour length to two years and expand the definition of joint billet.
The committee staffer also said the chairman is trying to cut bureaucracy and paperwork by reducing the number of studies the Pentagon must perform. The mark would eliminate the Quadrennial Defense Review, but create the Defense Strategic Guidance, a document from the defense secretary on force size, priorities and resources released every four years.
While it is not included in his draft, Thornberry plans to introduce an amendment to limit the power of the National Security Council, which critics have accused of micromanagement. The amendment would cap the number of NSC staff at a number “well below the current 400.” If it increases beyond that size, it would lose its distinction as an advisory body and become a formal department, subject to congressional oversight and approval of its head by lawmakers.
Thornberry has emphasized reforms of Goldwater-Nichols and the Pentagon’s acquisition system, but the defense policy bill touches every piece of the military for the next fiscal year. His plan would require a study to look at how Selective Service would work if it needed to be activated and what other alternatives there might be to a draft, a staffer said.
It also extends the same prohibitions on transferring Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S., or using any money to build a place to house terrorist prisoners in America.
The bill would provide funding for the administration’s effort to train and equip Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State, but withhold 25 percent of the money until the White House provides lawmakers its plan to take and hold Mosul.
Thornberry’s draft of the bill is far from final, and will still be edited through amendments from other House lawmakers, as well as a conference to reconcile it with whatever version of the bill the Senate passes.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has promised his version of the bill will include more controversial reorganization, including tweaks to the current geographic combatant commands.
