The first full House and Senate conference committee meeting to finalize reconciliation of the congressional chambers’ different versions of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act is slated to meet Thursday morning, CQ reports.
House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders met Tuesday afternoon to continue negotiations on the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in hopes of reaching agreement next week, CQ reported.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe said committee leaders including SASC Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and HASC Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) have already discussed some of the contentious issues that need resolution between the two chambers’ versions of the FY 2020 NDAA.
“We’ve already actually had a couple of informal big four meetings,” he said.
Inhofe did not say what issues the leaders have discussed, though the two mandatory defense policy bills differ on many issues.
Despite the differences, Inhofe said he is confident that the committee leaders will produce a conference report by October, according to the report.
“I get along very well with Smith and always have,” Inhofe said. “We’re going to try to do this by the end of next week.”