Colorado's Doug Lamborn touts contributions to defense bill, says he'll likely support final version

The massive national defense bill making its way through Congress includes dozens of measures proposed by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, the only member of Colorado's congressional delegation with an Armed Services Committee seat this session.

In his ninth term, the Colorado Springs Republican told Colorado Politics that he's been able to contribute more than 250 provisions to the 16 annual editions of the National Defense Authorization Act that have emerged from the House Armed Services Committee since he joined the panel midway through his first term.

This year has been a high point with some 50 amendments he wrote and co-sponsored, Lamborn said, now that he chairs the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces after serving as its ranking member in the last Congress before Republicans took the majority.

"Each year, I get more entrenched, more capable of getting language into the bill," Lamborn said.

While the committee is one of the most bipartisan panels in the U.S. House, Lamborn added that members' ability to influence the resulting legislation varies, depending on whether they're in the majority or minority.

"But this year, being a chairman of a major subcommittee, I've had the most influence I've ever had," Lamborn said.

The House narrowly passed its version of the $866 billion bill earlier this month on a near-party line vote, 219-210, with Lamborn and fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert the only Colorado lawmakers voting in favor.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck joined the state's five Democratic House members voting against it. Buck called the bill's price tag too high, while the Democrats said they couldn't support the bill after the addition of numerous GOP-sponsored amendments on contentious social issues, including measures targeting the military's policies on abortion and diversity.

The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate will almost certainly strip many of the more controversial provisions before the two chambers work to reconcile the versions later this year.

Lamborn said that while he supports the bill that passed out of the House — including more than a dozen amendments on hot-button issues — he anticipates he'll vote for the legislation that emerges from a conference committee if it's in line with the leaner version that passed the Armed Services Committee on a nearly unanimous vote.

"I'm hopeful that the final version is as close to the House version as possible," Lamborn said. "But there are so many good things in it. I will probably support it, even if it doesn't have everything I want."

Among the highlights lauded by Lamborn are a 5.2% pay raise for military personnel — the largest in decades — and a series of national security policies he's pulled for as chairman of the subcommittee devoted to deterring adversaries from attacking the U.S.

The bill, he said, "prioritizes hypersonic development, bolsters America’s nuclear deterrent, and advances missile-defense capabilities, while addressing the pacing challenges posed by our adversaries. This legislation also strengthens America’s military space capabilities to protect our most valuable space assets and ensure American dominance."

Lamborn said the legislation succeeds on multiple fronts, from providing funding to "counter China's aggression" to pushing back on the Biden administration's "woke and progressive policies."

Provisions contributed by Lamborn include establishing a Space National Guard and the Nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile program, despite the Biden administration's attempts to eliminate it.

Lamborn said he was particularly enthused about advancing an ongoing program he's championed to research using lasers and other forms of directed energy on the battlefield.

"Lasers have tremendous capabilities, both commercial and military," he said, noting that the U.S. military is working with Israel on developing a version of that country's Iron Dome air defense system using lasers to shoot down incoming missiles.

Cautioning that he couldn't go into detail for security reasons, Lamborn said he was impressed during a recent visit to Israel that the country's military is catching up so quickly with the United States on the technology.

"it's a lot cheaper — an Iron Dome missile can cost $100,000, and a laser uses, basically, 50 cents worth of energy, once you have it in place," Lamborn said. "It's expensive to get it in place, but once you have it, you invert the cost curve, is what we say."

Lamborn said he is gratified when his staff recently rounded up the hundreds of amendments he's been able to add to the must-pass defense bills over the years.

"Each of these amendments has the potential, if it were not a military issue, to be a separate piece of legislation, a separate bill, because the requirement for the military and for defense is everything has to go in one bill," Lamborn said.

"That's just the way it's done. So, if you have a really, really major issue, normally that would be a separate bill in any other committee, but here it might be a five-page amendment to a 1,000-page bill. So, it's an amendment, not a bill, but it's the equivalent of a bill in its effect."

A major Lamborn-sponsored provision in last year's bill include authorizing a National Hypersonics Initiative, meant to accelerate cooperation between the defense industry, academic institutions and the military to research and develop the emerging technology. In the same bill, he won nearly $50 million to refurbish and replace aging infrastructure at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, a Space Force facility built into a mountainside on the southwest side of Colorado Springs.

In the 2021 defense bill, Lamborn secured close to $1 billion in funding to research and build advanced weapons systems and expanded facilities in the Pikes Peak region, including the Consolidated Space Operations Facility on Schriever Air Force Base and other installations at Peterson Air Force Base.

Amendments he's sponsored have run the gamut, from bolstering bases and missions in the 5th Congressional District to setting national security policy at the highest level.

Lamborn succeeded in 2016 in adding $6 million to the Army Reserve budget to create a cybersecurity partnership program involving the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and five other universities. A 2014 amendment blocked funding for implementing the New START Treaty — a 2010 agreement between the United States and Russia to reduce nuclear warheads — until Russia withdraws from Ukraine.

But even as a subcommittee chair with seniority on the Armed Services Committee, Lamborn acknowledged that he hasn't been able to get everything he's wanted in the bills. This year, for instance, he said he was rebuffed when he tried to insert an amendment to turn down the heat surrounding the location of Space Command headquarters.

"I tried one point ... to stop the Alabama people from penalizing the secretary of the Air Force if he didn't come out with his decision real soon," Lamborn said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the Alabama Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, recently blocked new spending and cut travel funds available to the Air Force chief in attempt to pressure an announcement on whether Space Command will stay at its temporary home in Colorado Springs or move to Huntsville, Ala.

"I tried to strip that out, and I was soundly defeated because both the chairman and the Democratic ranking member worked against me, and I had to withdraw the amendment," Lamborn said.

That's the way the bill works, he added.

"No one gets everything they want," he said. "I gave you an example of something I tried and did not succeed at, but everyone gets a chance to at least express themselves and offer their amendments and debate the issues."