The White House wants to continue those investments, but again, McCain was an original drafter of the provision.

An amendment to begin work on a third Ground-based Midcourse Defense site in the Eastern U.S. was pulled.

“My amendment would have established a study on three potential locations for an East Coast missile defense site, an environmental impact study and a plan for deployment of that site,” said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who intended to cosponsor the measure. Since the House has already passed a similar provision, she pulled the amendment in favor of having the conference committee be the final arbiter.

One issue that the House and Senate now agree on is that the U.S. should stop contracting with Rosoboronexport, which has been tied to selling weapons to Syria. The U.S. in July announced a contract to buy 10 Mi-17 helicopters from the Russian company for the Afghan military. The amendment, which passed unanimously in the Senate, calls for a prohibition on the use of funding to do business with Rosoboronexport, but at the same time, it allows the defense secretary to waive the rule in the cases of purchases for Afghan National Security Forces.