Pre-cursor Earmarks (?) in the Defense Bill

Jun 12, 2014 | 4 min read | Print Article

Taxpayers for Common Sense combed through the National Defense Authorization legislation, as it was passed by the House of Representatives, looking for what we call ‘precursor earmarks.’ Here's the story in the Post and one from Congressional Quarterly about how . These aren’t earmarks because they don’t specify an amount of money to be spent. That said, these are attempts to get a leg up for a parochial interest by a lawmaker. It’s the pre-earmark.

Just because they are on this list doesn’t mean that they are necessarily ‘precursor earmarks’ but they looked like they might be so we pulled them together.

Subcommittee	Member	Amendment Language
Tactical Air and Land Forces	Sanchez	Directs the Secretary of the Army to brief the committee describing the technologies identified within the Stryker Vehicle Survivability Systems Integration Study program.
	Wilson	Requires the Secretary of the Army to submit a plan to HASC/SASC on the Army's plan to modernize the National Guard's fleet of UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters.
	Lamborn	Directs the SecDef to provide a report on DoD's plan to operationally test and deploy multi-aircraft control technology for UAVs.
	Hunter	Modifies Directive Report Language for a briefing on 25mm ammunition for the Joint Strike Fighter program.
	Carson	Directs the Secretary of Defense to brief the congressional defense committees on a recapitalization plan for tactical generators.
Readiness	Enyart	Requires the Secretary to submit a report and detailed briefing on the policies and procedures of the Department for procuring and inspecting armored vehicles for transporting civilian employees.
	Wilson	Requests a DOD submit a report to HASC/SASC on emerging flame resistant technologies that industry is developing and whether these technologies could decrease the cost of flame resistant uniforms.
Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities	Nugent	Directs the Secretary of the Navy to brief the committee on the performance of the Laser Weapon System after its deployment aboard the USS Ponce.
	Cook	Clarifies the subject matter of the required briefing by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency regarding combat forces operating in disadvantaged environments to specify the impact of currently available software tools.
	Shea-Porter	Directs the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering to brief the committee on the technical capability of the Department to study military-relevant turbulent boundary layer phenomena and identify any gaps in those capabilities.
	Maffei	Directs the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological programs to brief the committee on the status of the development of a vaccine for equine encephalitis.
	Sanchez	Requires the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics to brief the committee on research and development of high-efficiency conventional missile propulsion.
Strategic Forces	Larsen	Requires the Director of Naval Reactors to brief the committee on the requirements and costs to maintain the capability to develop an advanced fuel systems for nuclear propulsion.
	Cook	The amendment specifies Commercial Satellite Weather Data as a requirement of the Secretary of the Air Force’s plan to utilize assets of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP).