[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 146 (Monday, September 11, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S5163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 938. Mrs. ERNST (for herself and Mrs. McCaskill) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill H.R. 2810, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle B of title I, add the following:
SEC. ___. AH-64 APACHE HELICOPTER PROGRAM.
(a) Basing Decisions.--The Secretary of Defense shall halt
any decisions or actions taken pursuant to the Army
Restructuring Initiative (ARI) or recommendations of the 2016
National Commission on the Future of the Army (NCFA) relating
to the basing and force structure of AH-64 Apache
helicopters.
(b) Analysis.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Army shall submit
to the congressional defense committees a report with
findings of the updated and current analysis related to the
AH-64 Apache helicopter program, with respect to regular,
Reserve, and National Guard forces, which shall be
incorporated in the modernization strategy for the total Army
required in section 1062, and shall take into particular
account--
(1) current and projected readiness data for relevant units
in the total Army;
(2) current and anticipated pilot attrition, retention, and
training in the total Army, with consideration for
contractual training obligations for coalition partner
nations;
(3) current trends and policy, without constraints from the
Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25), the Army
Aviation Restructuring Initiative, and the National
Commission on the Future of the Army (NCFA); and
(4) the total number of Attack Reconnaissance Battalions
and Heavy Armed Reconnaissance Squadrons needed in the total
Army.
(c) Resumption of Training.--In order to increase AH-64
Apache training capacity, the Secretary of Defense shall
resume AH-64 Army National Guard training at an additional
location which has demonstrated recent historical capability
to meet AH-64 pilot training requirements and increase
capacity of AH-64 pilots across the Army, Army National
Guard, and coalition partner nations.
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