GovernmentExecutive.com

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is continuing to work the Pentagon's position on controversial provisions of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill, reportedly delivering a third version of a draft compromise to the Office of Management and Budget this week.

Unlike in earlier efforts, Wolfowitz did not bother this time to circulate his latest iteration of the draft proposal to other Cabinet-level agencies involved in the debate.

Those agencies include the Commerce and State departments and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Along with OMB, all have voiced concern over Wolfowitz's two earlier efforts to neutralize what critics see as some of the more onerous language in the legislation by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.

Although Wolfowitz's effort to negotiate a compromise on the draft legislation proved successful - many measures were amended and some were deleted entirely, including those that would strengthen so-called Buy American laws - strong opposition by the State Department continues.

In the meantime, both the House and Senate Armed Services committees are biding their time as the administration hashes out a unified compromise on Hunter's provisions. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., continues to await a formal response to his letters last month to OMB, the USTR and the State Department, requesting written clarification on the administration's position.

Until then, the industrial base protection language included in Hunter's bill remains a sticking point in the 2004 defense authorization conference, along with the Pentagon's civilian personnel reform and environmental flexibility proposals, veterans' benefits and military base realignment and closure.

A spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee said staff-level meetings on the defense authorization conference continue, and Hunter may be in contact with Warner this week to discuss reconciling the two chambers' versions of the bill.