The Senate Armed Services Committee has put its plan to hold “paper hearings” during the coronavirus crisis on ice after one hearing.
“When the committee first laid out the concept of ‘paper hearings,’ we understood that, being in uncharted territory, we would remain flexible and re-assess the process as conditions changed,” panel spokeswoman Marta Hernandez said in a statement Thursday.
“Recognizing the additional burden on the Department of Defense at this critical time, Chairman [James] Inhofe and Ranking Member [Jack] Reed have agreed to postpone future paper hearings until the committee has more clarity on the COVID-19 situation,” she added.
Last month, the panel said it would hold what it was calling paper hearings in an effort to keep the annual defense policy bill on track despite lawmakers staying out of Washington during the coronavirus pandemic.
The committee had also planned to hold a paper hearing on the Energy Department’s nuclear budget Thursday. But late Wednesday it was postponed due, the panel said Thursday, to the decision to put the paper hearings in general on hold.
“The issues associated with production of nuclear warheads remains central to modernization of the nuclear triad, and as such, the committee expects to address these critical questions in the future,” Hernandez said.
Inhofe has previously laid out a schedule for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would see the committee considering the bill in May and the full Senate voting on it in June.
The NDAA is considered a must-pass bill, dictating matters as routine as how many planes and ships the military can buy to as sweeping as creating last year a new military service in the Space Force.
Inhofe “remains committed” to finishing the committee’s work on the NDAA by the end of May, but he also “remains flexible because of the uncertainty associated with the coronavirus in the weeks ahead,” Hernandez said. “Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Reed continue to work to reach this goal with transparency and accountability in mind,” she said. “At this point, no decisions have been made, but as
this crisis evolves, the committee will announce changes to the anticipated markup schedule.”
