In its report on the FY2011 defense appropriations bill (S. 3800, S. Rept. 111-295), the Senate Appropriations Committee calculates the cost of cancelling the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and restructuring it so that DOD and NOAA once again have separate systems at more than $20 billion, what it calls a “staggering” cost.

The total includes $5 billion already spent on NPOESS, and an estimated $15.4 billion for the replacement NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and DOD Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS): $9.4 billion for JPSS and $6 billion for DWSS. Funding for DWSS is included in this bill. Funding for JPSS is in the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill (S. 3636, S. Rept. 111-229). The committee also expressed reservations about the cost of the restructured program in its report accompanying that bill.

Calling it “premature” for DOD to set up a program office for DWSS, the committee said there “must be a more cost-effective way for DOD to utilize NOAA’s significant investment.” The committee zeroed DOD’s $325.5 million request for NPOESS and included $50 million for DWSS specifically and only for development of unique sensors DOD needs.

Today the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY2011 defense appropriations bill that emerged from subcommittee on Tuesday, but on a party-line vote, 18-12. Ordinarily defense appropriations is a bipartisan measure.

Republican opposition to the bill apparently is a signal of dissatisfaction with the overall level of spending in FY2011 supported by the Democrats. Republicans are trying to force Democrats to cut discretionary spending — which includes DOD, NASA and NOAA — and hold it to $1.108 trillion, less than the Senate’s $1.114 trillion or the House’s $1.121 trillion, according to Congress Daily (subscription required).

Congress Daily quotes Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) as saying that Republicans have opposed all the FY2011 appropriations bills because they do not bring down the deficit or the debt, while Rep. James Moran (D-VA), chair of one of the House appropriations subcommittees (Interior and Environment), is quoted as asserting that it is “all about politics … not about being fiscally responsible.”

Whatever the motivations, it is clear that whatever is approved by the appropriations committees on both sides remains subject to revision as the appropriations bills work their way through the rest of the congressional process. The House has passed two of the 12 FY2011 appropriations bills (Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and Military Construction-Veterans Administration). The Senate has not passed any. Fiscal year 2011 begins on October 1. A Continuing Resolution (CR) will be needed to keep the government operating while Congress completes consideration of the appropriations bills. CRs usually hold agencies to their previous year’s funding level.

While there were predictions this summer than the national security appropriations bills (defense, Homeland Security, and Milcon-VA) would pass before Congress adjourned for the November elections, that appears less likely now. As for the bill that funds NASA and NOAA (the Commerce-Justice-Science bill), it is anyone’s guess as to when that will pass, but whenever it does, it would not be surprising for it to include an across-the-board reduction. Such reductions typically are taken at the agency’s discretion and usually must be applied to all programs within an agency.

Despite earlier pessimism about the chances of the Senate bringing up the Department of Defense (DOD) authorization bill (S. 3454), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has decided not only to take it to the floor, but to add immigration reform.

An attempt to reach unanimous consent to bring the bill to the floor failed in early August when Senator John McCain (R-AZ), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, objected because it potentially would repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Last week, Congress Daily called the chances of the Senate passing the bill “murky.”

Nonetheless, Sen. Reid indicated early this week that he would try to bring up the bill for debate and surprised many by announcing that he planned to tack an immigration reform bill, the DREAM Act, on to the DOD bill. Today’s Congress Daily (subscription required) says that Republicans oppose the idea because immigration is not germane to national defense, but Sen. Reid reportedly said that it is germane because the DREAM Act could affect military recruitment by allowing young adult illegal immigrants who came to the United States as minors to become citizens.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on whether to proceed with debate on the bill.

The Senate defense appropriations subcommittee (SAC-D) marked up the FY2011 defense appropriations bill today recommending zero funding for DOD’s portion of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) that the White House wants restructured after years of cost overruns and schedule slips. It approved $50 million for DOD’s successor program, the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS).

NPOESS was designed to merge the separate military and civil weather satellite systems of DOD and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, part of the Department of Commerce). NASA was involved in a technical capacity. An independent assessment of the NPOESS program led by former Lockheed Martin executive Tom Young raised warning flags about the program and in February the White House decided to break the program apart so that each agency had its own system once more.

NOAA renamed its portion the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and is proceeding with procuring its first satellite through NASA. DOD renamed its portion the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS). In its FY2011 budget request, DOD asked for $325 million for its part of the restructured program although it provided few details on its plan, for example whether it would retain the satellite “bus” design developed through Northrop Grumman, the NPOESS prime contractor.

SAC-D zeroed that request while providing $50 million for DWSS. Unlike NOAA, which has launched the last of its legacy polar-orbiting weather satellites and thus is anxious to launch the first JPSS in 2014, DOD has two of its legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites awaiting launch, so the need to decide on the replacement version is less urgent.

The only other space program mentioned in the committee’s press release is Operationally Responsive Space, for which $40 million was added.

The Senate defense appropriations subcommittee will mark up the FY2011 DOD appropriations bill tomorrow, Tuesday, September 14 at 10:30 am in 192 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Full committee markup of that bill and three others is scheduled for Thursday at 2:00 pm in 106 Dirksen. Both meetings were announced by the committee today.

The Secure World Foundation (SWF) released its seventh Space Security report today. Space Security 2010 analyzes what happened in 2009 affecting space security. Not surprisingly, much attention is focused on the February 2009 collision between a U.S. Iridium satellite and a defunct Russian satellite that generated substantial amounts of space debris. That event stimulated the United States and other spacefaring countries to ratchet up efforts at space situational awareness so satellite operators can ensure satellites stay out of each other’s way.

The annual index identifies trends and developments in a given year that impact space security, which its sponsors define as “The secure and sustainable access to, and use of, space and freedom from space-based threats.” Those sponsors are SWF, The Simons Foundation, Project Ploughshares (Canada), the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University (Montreal), and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has released its annual assessment of China’s military power. The report is required by Congress. The 2010 edition, bearing a different title than its predecessors, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, concludes that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sees “space as central to enabling modern informatized warfare, but PLA doctrine does not appear to contemplate space operations as an operational ‘campaign’ on its own; rather, space operations form an integral component of all campaigns.”

While conceding that studying PLA views on strategy remains “an inexact science,” the report asserts that China is “accelerating the militarization of space” by developing anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities. The report repeats earlier DOD analysis that China continues to develop the ASAT system it tested in 2007 and other types of counter-space weapons as well, including kinetic and directed-energy weapons. The 2007 test led to international condemnation because of the thousands of pieces of debris it created.

The wording on space’s role in modern warfare and China’s ASAT activities is almost identical to what appeared in the 2009 version of the report.

The report is far from an analysis of China’s space program and goals, limiting itself to very brief discussions of selected activities. There is little new compared with last year’s version; in fact, there is less discussion of the human spaceflight program, for example. In an article in this week’s Space Review, Dwayne Day has an interesting take on what is omitted from the report, hypothesizing that DOD may decline to include information for fear of revealing what it knows. He also points to a side-by-side comparison of what is said about space in the 2009 and 2010 versions prepared by Sam Black of Arms Control Wonk as well as Black’s analysis of the two documents.

In short, the report is disappointing for anyone wanting to learn new information about China’s space program.

Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) wants to bring the Department of Defense (DOD) authorization bill to the floor of the Senate when the Senate returns from its August break, but SASC ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) strenuously objected yesterday.

Sen. Levin was attempting to get a unanimous consent (UC) agreement to bring the bill to the floor in September, but Sen. McCain blocked the UC because he opposes some of the bill’s provisions, especially repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military. Sen. McCain wants to wait on that issue until a promised survey is done of the morale of men and women in the military on that issue. He argues that the Democrats are trying to push a “social agenda on legislation … intended to ensure the nation’s security.” Sen. Levin replied that the issue should be debated on the Senate floor and the committee’s bill requires that the survey be done.

The video of the exchange is available on YouTube.

The Senate has a full agenda when it returns in September and is expected to be in session for only three weeks before adjourning again so Senators can prepare for the mid-term elections.

UPDATE, AUGUST 10: The House did not take up this bill during its one day return according to Congress Daily (subscription required). The publication stated that House Speaker Pelosi remains dissatisfied with the provisions in the bill regarding who in Congress should be briefed on highly classified intelligence matters. Congress Daily says that this was the last best chance for the bill to be passed by the House this year, and the lack of action dooms the bill.

ORIGINAL STORY: Fiscal Year 2010 may almost be over, but the Senate yesterday passed the FY2010 Intelligence Authorization bill. Agreement on the bill has been stymied since last summer over provisions regarding who in Congress should be briefed on the most highly sensitive intelligence matters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been adamant that all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees be briefed rather than only the chairs and ranking members (plus four other congressional leaders — the so-called “gang of eight”) as is current practice, which the White House does not want to change. Congress Daily (subscription required) reports that the Senate-passed bill reflects agreement with the White House, but that although Speaker Pelosi has not yet endorsed it, she may be pressured to bring the bill up for a vote next week when the House reconvenes to pass the state aid bill to pay for teachers and Medicaid.

At a meeting of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD) Tuesday, the State Department began implementing President Obama’s new U.S. space policy, highlighting its emphasis on stability in space.

Frank Rose of the State Department contrasted the Obama policy with that of the Bush Administration saying “in a departure from the 2006 policy, the new National Space Policy also states that the United States will consider space-related arms control concepts and proposals that meet the criteria of equitability and effective verifiability, and which enhance the national security of the United States and its allies.”

Rose added: “let me reaffirm that the United States continues to support the inclusion of a non-negotiating, or discussion, mandate in any CD program of work under the agenda item, ‘Prevention of an Arms Race in Space,’ known as PAROS. This was the basis of a compromise reached at the CD in May 2009.”

The speech outlined for the 65 member countries of the CD the major thrusts of the new Obama policy focusing on its emphasis on international cooperation, debris mitigation and space situational awareness, and its call for transparency and confidence building measures (TCBMs). A major tenet of the Obama policy is that space has become vital to the interests of most countries in the world and all must work together to ensure that space remains a usable environment.