The INSIDER daily digest -- Sept. 1, 2021

By John Liang / September 1, 2021 at 2:28 PM

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has coverage of the House Armed Services Committee marking up next year's defense authorization bill and more.

We start off with coverage of the House Armed Services Committee's marking up the fiscal year 2022 defense policy bill:

New legislative provisions mandate reports on hypersonic threats, upgrading hypersonic strike and re-alerting bomber force

House lawmakers have agreed to new legislative provisions that would require an accounting of the ability to detect hypersonic threats to the United States, direct the Navy to plan for future upgrades to its long-range hypersonic strike project and require the Air Force to prepare a cost estimate to re-alert nuclear-armed bombers.

House authorizers want new space AQ exec to leverage commercial services

The House Armed Services Committee is seeking to bar the Space Force's acquisition executive from establishing a program of record unless officials determine there are no commercial alternatives currently available, under an amendment lawmakers adopted today during the panel's marathon mark-up of the fiscal year 2022 defense policy bill.

House authorizers seek Pentagon notice surrounding growth of Chinese nuclear stockpile

In the opening hour of the House Armed Service Committee's marathon defense policy bill mark-up, lawmakers signed off on an amendment that would direct officials to notify congressional defense panels if they determine China's nuclear stockpile outpaces that of the United States.

Document: House authorizers' FY-22 defense policy bill amendments

In case you missed it, the House Armed Services Committee's top Democrat spoke this week at a Brookings Institute event on the defense budget:

Smith defends Pentagon spending in advance of marathon mark-up

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smtih (D-WA) this week sounded like a lawmaker who knows the defense budget is going up, offering arguments against progressives in his own party who seek to cut Pentagon spending, rather than vocalizing his oft-stated opposition to GOP-backed efforts to boost the defense topline.

Our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity covered an industry event that featured former Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord:

Lord: CMMC needs to continue under new DOD leadership

Ellen Lord, former chief of the Pentagon's acquisition office, says the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program should move forward with a focus on incorporating improvements as it develops, while the Biden administration needs to help the effort by appointing her replacement.

212545