Defense Bill Negotiations Loom on Climate, PFAS Provisions

Congress will return the week after Labor Day needing to find a speedy compromise between House and Senate versions of an annual defense bill that take different approaches on climate change and potentially hazardous nonstick chemicals.

House and Senate negotiators are expected to formally begin ironing out differences between the fiscal 2020 defense authorization bills (H.R. 2500, S. 1790), shortly after Congress returns the week of Sept. 9, though informal “pre-conference conversations” are underway, a Senate Armed Services committee aide said.

The House and Senate have both passed their own bills that address ...