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| Focusing on National Security |
June 28, 2004 |
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Dear Friends,
Last week, as we approached the Fourth of July break, we spent a lot of time in the House on defense and intelligence. We passed the Defense Appropriations Bill, the Intelligence Authorization Act, and the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. These three bills have a major impact on New Mexico because they fund the Departments of Defense and Energy and set priorities for our Intelligence Community.
The Intelligence Community does not have a laboratory of its own. When they need technology or research they rely heavily on our national laboratories. The intelligence bill authorized the continuation of a consortium we first set up last year that is centered in New Mexico. It deals in a nitch area of intelligence called Measurement and Signature intelligence or MASINT. The consortium includes both of our national labs, as well as UNM and is led by Sandia.
MASINT asks questions about what we can measure over time - temperature changes, light reflections, chemistry - and what those measurements or changes in those measurements mean. For example, if a smoke stack is hotter today than yesterday or if it changes over time in a recognizable pattern, what does that tell us about the factory? The MASINT consortium is a low-cost, high pay-off part of our intelligence program and it will continue and be supported next year.
The Defense Appropriations bill includes several projects important to the state, including the funding for all three of our military bases and White Sands Missile Range and enough money to keep all of our F-117s at Holloman.
The Energy and Water bill is something of a mixed bag. The overall numbers are fine. The budget for the Office of Science is increased and the weapons program -- where most of the lab funding comes from -- is funded at $6.5 billion.
But most bills we pass come with a "Report" which is the staff`s explanation of what the provisions of the bill mean. Report language is not law. We can`t amend it on the floor of the House and we don`t vote on it. Usually, report language is pretty bland and most people don`t even read it. In this case, the Committee and its staff put a ton of things in the report language that are quite prescriptive and some of the report language is inconsistent with existing law.
The next step from here is for the House to negotiate with the Senate and Senator Domenici is the lead Senate negotiator. Of course, that could be why they put some of the stuff in their report. Horse trading is one model of how a legislature works, and some members use this approach more than others. It certainly isn`t the way I think we should do business on matters affecting national security. But that may be where we are.
Wish you were here,
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