{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press/donnelly-continues-push-for-north-korea-strategy-in-final-defense-bill", "Donnelly Continues Push for North Korea Strategy in Final Defense Bill", "2017-11-09", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "IN", "Joe Donnelly", "D000607", "www.donnelly.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Donnelly Continues Push for North Korea Strategy in Final Defense Bill\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tSenator helped negotiate final bill between the House and Senate\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, November 9, 2017\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly continued his advocacy for a clear, comprehensive strategy from the Administration and the Department of Defense to confront the threat posed by North Korea. His provision is included in the final national defense bill released today. Donnelly helped negotiate the final bill and reconcile differences between versions of the national defense bill passed in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The reconciled bill, which Donnelly supports, must pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate before it can go to President Trump\u2019s desk to be signed into law.\r\nIn September, the Senate overwhelming passed the bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included Donnelly\u2019s amendment requiring the administration to bring to Congress, within 90 days of enactment, a strategy to address North Korea\u2019s threat to our country and our allies. Donnelly spoke on the Senate floor about his amendment.\r\nDonnelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, \u201cThe security threat posed by North Korea is real and increasing. While the President has spent the week in Asia speaking with leaders from our allies in the region \u2013 including South Korea and Japan \u2013 we still need the administration to lay out a comprehensive strategy to address the Kim regime\u2019s nuclear weapons. My amendment included in this bipartisan national defense bill would ensure that Congress is able to review and understand the President\u2019s strategy for keeping our country safe.\u201d\r\nThe NDAA is annual legislation that authorizes resources for our military, provides the framework for defense spending, and sets key priorities for the Department of Defense. Resources authorized in the NDAA must then be funded through annual appropriations legislation for the Department of Defense.\r\nProvisions pushed by Senator Donnelly that were included in the final national defense bill:\r\nNORTH KOREA, MISSILE DEFENSE, & NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION\r\n \r\nStrategy Addressing the North Korean Threat: The bill includes Donnelly\u2019s provision that would require the President to bring to Congress, within 90 days of enactment, a strategy addressing the threat posed by North Korea. Donnelly recently spoke on the Senate floor about the amendment.\r\nDefending the U.S. from North Korean ICBMs: As Ranking Member of the Strategic Forces subcommittee, which oversees U.S. missile defense systems, Donnelly secured $12.3 billion for the Missile Defense Agency to strengthen homeland and regional missile defense systems that protect the United States, our allies and our troops overseas from missile threats, including North Korean ballistic missiles.\r\nIsraeli Missile Defense:\u00a0At Donnelly\u2019s request, the bill would fully fund, at $705 million, U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense programs. These programs are designed to thwart a diverse range of threats, from short-range missiles and rockets fired by non-state actors, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, to mid- and longer-range ballistic missiles in the arsenals of Syria and Iran. Cooperative missile defense is a vital component of our bilateral strategic relationship with Israel and is a high priority in light of threats posed by Iran\u2019s ballistic and cruise missile arsenal and support for terrorist proxies across the Middle East.\r\nNon-Proliferation Programs Including Nunn-Lugar:\u00a0The bill would fully fund the Nunn-Lugar program. The Nunn-Lugar program supports cooperative efforts between the U.S. and foreign allies and partners to counter weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological threats. The program is named after Senator Richard Lugar who helped create it at the end of the Cold War. This is the latest in Donnelly\u2019s success efforts to fund the Nunn-Lugar Program through the national defense bill.\r\n \r\nINDIANA-SPECIFIC ITEMS\r\n \r\nNew Facilities in Indiana:\u00a0The bill, at Donnelly\u2019s urging, would fully fund a $24 million military construction project at Crane Army Ammunition Activity in Indiana. The bill would also provide an $8 million for a military construction project at Terre Haute Regional Airport, in support of operations of the Indiana National Guard\u2019s 181stIntelligence Wing.\r\nFlexibility in Lab Budgets:\u00a0Also thanks to Donnelly\u2019s efforts, the bill would codify and make permanent authority Donnelly has supported over the past several years to give individual military labs, like NSWC Crane in Indiana, permission to use 2-4% of their annual budget for things like in-house research, transitioning technology innovations to operational use, training and educating laboratory staff and making minor improvements or repairs to their infrastructure and equipment.\r\nExpedited Access to University Expertise:\u00a0The bill would give DoD authority to establish new multi-school partnerships (via contracts, consortia, cooperative agreements or other arrangements) to make it easier and faster for DoD to work with key university partners on topics relevant to military needs. Donnelly has worked with universities across Indiana, including Purdue, Indiana University, Notre Dame to create and strengthen opportunities for DoD to access the knowledge and expertise of their students and faculty.\r\n \r\nSUPPORTING OUR TROOPS\r\n \r\nMilitary Pay Raise:\u00a0The bill would increase servicemember pay by 2.4%.\r\nPost-Traumatic Stress Treatments:\u00a0The bill would encourage DoD to use the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Breakthrough Therapy Designation program to help develop and approve novel drug therapies for PTSD.\r\nTraumatic Brain Injury Research:\u00a0The bill would encourage DoD to continue its collaboration with public and private partners to accelerate the development of pharmaceutical therapies to reverse the effects of TBI.\r\n \r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press/donnelly-continues-push-for-north-korea-strategy-in-final-defense-bill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0780959855765104, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}