Congress prepares to override 9/11 veto Presented by Northrop Grumman

With Zach Montellaro, Connor O’Brien and Ellen Mitchell

DRIVING THE DAY — THE FIRST FALL DEBATE: It’s the show nearly everyone’s been eagerly awaiting — or dreading: Presidential debate No. 1 between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Read all of POLITICO’s coverage here, including this “false-claims-to-watch-for” story (Think war in Iraq.).

MEANWHILE, ON CAPITOL HILL, A SHOWDOWN LOOMS OVER THE SAUDI 9/11 BILL: President Barack Obama on Friday vetoed the bill to allow 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, setting up a veto override showdown with Congress that’ll start playing out this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says the Senate will move to override the veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, before senators leave town for the November elections. And House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said the House will also move to override, though its timing is not yet clear. The Senate will act first because the bill originated there.

— HASC LEADERS HEAD OPPOSITION TO THE BILL ON THE HILL: While the veto override almost certainly has the votes to succeed, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee have both come out against the bill. Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to Republicans on Friday, while Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) sent one of his own to Democrats on Sunday. Both raised concern about the impact to U.S. military and intelligence personnel.

"My primary concern is that this bill increases the risk posed to American military and intelligence personnel, diplomats and others serving our country around the world," Thornberry wrote. In the letter obtained by POLITICO, Smith argued the legislation would put “U.S. personnel at risk” by “weakening the international protections that shield them against prosecution in civil and criminal courts around the world,” our colleague Seung Min Kim reports.

— OBAMA’S VETO MESSAGE: The president’s three-page letter to Congress explaining his veto is here.

BOMBINGS ESCALATE IN ALEPPO: The Wall Street Journal has more here: “Syria and its Russian allies pressed an assault on Aleppo amid what the United Nations called the most intense bombing in years of warfare there, and residents said hundreds of civilians have been killed since a cease-fire fell apart last week. The surge in deaths came as a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend cited reports of ‘bunker buster bombs.’

“The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Security Council on Sunday that he had seen videos and pictures of incendiary bombs ‘that create fireballs of such intensity that they light up the pitch darkness in eastern Aleppo, as though it was actually daylight.’ Rebels and opposition leaders blamed Russia, Syria’s key ally, for the bunker-buster bombs.”

— U.S., RUSSIA STILL TRADING VERBAL BLOWS, via Reuters: “The United States accused Russia of ‘barbarism’ in Syria on Sunday as warplanes supporting Syrian government forces pounded Aleppo and Moscow said ending the civil war was almost ‘impossible.’ A diplomatic solution to the fighting looked unlikely as U.S. and Russian diplomats disagreed at a U.N. Security Council meeting called to discuss the violence, which has escalated since a ceasefire collapsed last week.”

HAPPY MONDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we’re offering our condolences to young and old alike in the sports world, with the deaths Sunday of Arnold Palmer and Jose Fernandez. Keep the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback coming at [email protected], and follow on Twitter @jeremyherb, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

MORNING D TRIVIA: Matt Dunlay was the first to correctly answer that the three types of active Air Force bombers — the B-1, B-2 and B-52 — all deployed together for the first time in the Pacific in August, when they took off from Guam to send a signal to both North Korea and China. Check back Friday for our next question.

HAPPENING TODAY — CARTER TO NORTH DAKOTA FOR NUCLEAR SPEECH: Defense Secretary Ash Carter kicks off a weeklong domestic trip today at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, where he’ll discuss the “future of America’s nuclear capability,” according to the Pentagon. He’ll also be stopping in New Mexico, California and Hawaii, including hosting the U.S.-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Informal in Honolulu.

— CARTER’S A NUCLEAR WEAPONS EXPERT, BUT HE SAYS LITTLE ABOUT THEM, writes The Associated Press: “As defense secretary to a president who famously envisioned ‘a world without nuclear weapons,’ Ash Carter has said remarkably little about them. He has been quiet on a range of nuclear issues, including the Pentagon's $8 billion effort to correct an array of morale, training, discipline and resource problems in the Air Force nuclear missile corps, revealed by The Associated Press in the last three years.

“Nor has he publicly explained in detail the utility of nuclear weapons in an age of attacks by non-state actors like the Islamic State to build support for spending hundreds of billions on a new generation of them. … This is all the more notable because Carter, a physicist by training and policy wonk by reputation, cut his professional teeth on nuclear weapons during the Cold War. He probably knows more about them than any defense secretary since William Perry, a longtime nuclear expert, led the Pentagon a generation ago.”

ALSO THIS WEEK — CONGRESS TRIES TO AVOID A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: Congress has just a few days left to pass a stopgap spending measure before the end of the fiscal year at midnight Friday, and the White House raised the prospect of a veto on Friday. Things get moving again with a Senate procedural vote Tuesday afternoon. Our prediction: The continuing resolution will finally pass, and Congress will leave town to campaign without incident — but check back later this week.

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HOW MEDICAL RESEARCH BECAME BIG BUSINESS AT THE PENTAGON: We report on the major growth in an obscure Pentagon program that funds medical research, which critics charge often has little to do with military needs: “It began as a $25 million earmark for breast cancer research tucked into the Pentagon budget. Now it’s a billion-dollar-a-year spigot, funding studies of dozens of diseases, that not even the Senate armed services chairman can kill — defended by an army of lobbyists and advocates representing universities, research hospitals and patients’ groups.

“The two-decade history of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs is a prime example of how lawmakers get around spending caps by using the Defense Department’s $600 billion budget to fund their pet projects. It also highlights the near-impossibility of reining in a Pentagon program with a deeply rooted constituency — and shows just how swiftly a seed planted in the defense budget can grow. Of the $11 billion that the program has consumed since Congress created it in 1992, nearly three-quarters has gone to research with little direct bearing on military needs, according to an analysis by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Supporters of the Pentagon research grants — bolstered by a consortium of more than two-dozen advocacy groups — argue it is an invaluable avenue for medical research apart from the National Institutes of Health. They insist the program does, in fact, benefit service members, veterans and their families.”

AIR AND SPACE TURBULENCE — FOUR JSTARS GROUNDED: Four JSTARS surveillance aircraft have been grounded while the Air Force inspects the planes for flight safety issues after recent maintenance, the Air Force said Friday. The planes were grounded after they returned from a Northrop Grumman-led maintenance depot, and the service is conducting an independent inspection of the depot at Lake Charles, La. “Four JSTARS aircraft recently delivered from depot are being inspected for possible safety of flight issues,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanik said. “An independent review team is being assembled to inspect and validate quality assurance processes at the contractor's depot.”

— F-35 CATCHES FIRE IN IDAHO, reports Defense News: “An F-35A caught fire during an exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, the Air Force confirmed to Defense News. The incident took place at around noon and involved an F-35A aircraft from the 61st Fighter Squadron located at Luke Air Force Base, the service said in a statement. No serious injuries seem to have been sustained by the pilot or nearby crew. ‘The pilot had to egress the aircraft during engine start due to a fire from the aft section of the aircraft,’ Air Force spokesman Capt. Mark Graff said in an email.”

— SPACEX ISOLATES CAUSE OF ROCKET EXPLOSION: SpaceX reports it’s isolated the cause of a launch pad explosion of its Falcon 9 rocket and a $200 million satellite and anticipates returning to flight as early as November. A SpaceX statement on Friday said a preliminary review of the blast at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station found the explosion was likely a "large breach in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank."

GENERAL PROBLEMS — ARMY SUSPENDS 'BIG RED ONE' COMMANDER AT FORT RILEY: Major Gen. Wayne Grigsby is under "official investigation" and has been suspended as commander of the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan., the Army announced Friday. The service did not detail the nature of the investigation. "Major General Wayne Grigsby has been suspended from duties as commander of 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley, Kan.," Army Col. Patrick Seiber said in a statement.

— GENERAL’S AFFAIR GROUNDS CAREER, reports USA Today: “An Army National Guard general on the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been fired from his job following an extramarital affair, and interviews and records show that he had also negotiated a job and lived rent-free in the home of a defense contractor, USA TODAY has found. Brig. Gen. Michael Bobeck has been the focus of an internal investigation into an extramarital affair — a violation of military law — and misuse of government resources, according to Defense Department officials.”

SPEED READ

— “From Paradise to Hell”: How an Aid Convoy in Syria Was Blown Apart: The New York Times

— North Korea is showing little interest in releasing two American prisoners: The Washington Post

— North Korea flies a remote-controlled model F-16 at an air show: AP

— Russia and China are spending big on aerospace in a bid to challenge U.S. superiority in the skies: WSJ

— Turkey wants to join the U.S. operation to remove the Islamic State from Raqqa: Reuters

The peace agreement between Colombia and Farc rebels is set to be signed today: The Guardian

— The Air Force is expected to be 1,000 pilots short in 2017: San Antonio Express-News

— Celebrity chef Robert Irvine is partnering with Sodexo, which provides food to dozens of military installations, to try to improve the chow: Military Times

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