House lawmakers are seeking to stop Russian spy planes from partaking in exercises that may enable them to collect sensitive "intelligence that poses an unacceptable risk" to U.S. national security, according to a proposal in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Lawmakers have proposed to fully freeze funds that currently allow the United States to sign off on these Russian flights under the Open Skies Treaty, an agreement that permits aerial surveillance flights over 34 countries.
The House proposal would also reduce funding and limit the amount of information the United States provides to Russia about American missile defense capabilities.
The significant reduction in cooperation with Russia is being viewed as a direct response to President Vladimir Putin’s military incursion into Ukraine’s Crimea region, which has been met with little pushback by the Obama administration.
"The message couldn’t be clearer—as long as Russia is violating treaties and invading sovereign countries, this administration had better not be giving the Russians more access to our airspace, especially not if they're going to use it to collect intelligence on us," said one senior House aide familiar with the bill.
The measure, if approved in the final version of the NDAA passed by Congress, would effectively bar U.S. officials from signing off on any Russian surveillance flight that includes updated sensor technologies, such as cameras and radars, according to the proposal, which was authored by the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.
The measure would additionally require the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the director of national intelligence to jointly sign off on any Russian flights and certify that they "will not enhance the capability or potential of the Russian Federation to gather intelligence that poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States," according to the proposal.
Russian surveillance flights also would be barred until "the secretary of state certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that Russia is no longer illegally occupying Ukrainian territory" and is clearly "respecting the sovereignty of all Ukrainian territory."
The proposal could also force Obama to certify that Russia is no longer violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Lawmakers state in the bill that the United States will not abide by the Open Skies treaty if it risks "a threat to the national security of the United States."
The proposal additionally seeks to extend a prohibition on the United States sharing missile defense information with the Russians and would cut funds for such exchanges.
The funding cut would only be waived if President Barack Obama details to Congress "discussions between the United States and Russia during the prior fiscal year," according to the proposal.
The NDAA proposal is similar to a new Senate bill that seeks to arm the Ukrainians and sanction Russian violations.
A separate provision in the proposal aims to counter Russia by boosting support for a joint project to strengthen the police defense forces.
Russia blocked the United States earlier this month from conducting its own surveillance flights over Russian territory under the Open Skies treaty. The move was viewed as a way to prevent U.S. forces from surveilling Russian forces near Ukraine's border.
The United States eventually completed the surveillance flight at a later date.