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Law360 (April 9, 2020, 9:07 PM EDT ) The Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday that it would be forced to push back "paper" hearings related to the massive annual defense policy bill due to the Pentagon's current focus on COVID-19, possibly delaying the introduction of the legislation.
Because the U.S. Department of Defense has chosen, rightfully, to focus on responding to the virus, it has struggled to respond to questions meant to help lawmakers develop the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, the committee said in a statement.
As such, Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., have agreed to postpone all future "paper hearings" — conducted without witnesses present — according to the announcement, beginning with a hearing scheduled for Thursday that was intended to delve into the U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear weapons programs.
"When the committee first laid out the concept of 'paper hearings,' we understood that, being in uncharted territory, we would remain flexible and re-assess the process as conditions changed," the committee said.
The committee leaders had announced on March 25 that they would hold a series of paper hearings to help them develop the new NDAA, the sweeping annual defense budget and policy bill, aiming to have work completed on the committee's version of the bill by the end of May.
Witnesses would provide written statements and responses to questions rather than appearing in person as is typical for congressional hearings, a move intended to "protect the health of everyone involved," the lawmakers said at the time.
Those responses were to be posted on the committee website within a week, and the committee will still publicly post responses to questions it had already asked the U.S. Army for as part of a March 26 paper hearing, according to the announcement.
The House Armed Services Committee, which develops its own version of the NDAA that is ultimately reconciled with the Senate bill into a final version, had also postponed its own scheduled NDAA markup session on March 30.
Inhofe still intends to complete work on his committee's version of the bill by the end of May but also recognized that ongoing uncertainty related to the coronavirus meant he would have to be flexible, according to the committee.
"At this point, no decisions have been made, but as this crisis evolves, the committee will announce any changes to the anticipated markup schedule," it said.
Congress has passed an NDAA each year for more than five decades running, usually with broad bipartisan support.
The bill not only sets out the budget for the DOD — capped at $741 billion for 2021 under a recent bipartisan budget agreement — and other federal defense programs, but also frequently includes a raft of policy changes, such as new acquisition rules.
--Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.
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