The Senate will likely adopt an amendment to the fiscal 2010 military construction and Veterans Affairs spending bill that would reprogram $68.5 million in fiscal 2009 money to upgrade a missile defense testing facility at the Pacific Missile Range in Hawaii.

The amendment — by Appropriations Chairman Daniel K. Inouye , D-Hawaii — was offered at the request of Army Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O’Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency.

Inouye said he offered the amendment with reservations because it “circumvents” the Senate’s normal order of business. Such requests typically are authorized in the annual defense policy bill. Appropriators then redirect the money in a spending bill.

Inouye noted that Obama revealed his new European missile defense plan Sept. 17, well after the House and Senate began the conference negotiation process for the defense policy bill. O’Reilly’s letter arrived the day a conference agreement was reached on the fiscal 2010 policy measure.

In an Oct. 7 letter, O’Reilly said the funding was “previously appropriated for deployment of missile defense capabilities” in eastern Europe.

“Our top priority is the establishment of an Aegis Ashore test facility which could also provide an operational ballistic missile defense capability when needed,” O’Reilly wrote. “Due to its strategic location and multi-dimensional testing capabilities, the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii has been selected as the proposed site for this test facility, and placement of a test launcher at this site could also provide continuous protection for this region.”

The range on Kauai has been a test center for the Aegis ballistic missile defense system for 12 years. The ship-based system is at the core of the president’s new missile defense strategy.

Inouye said the facility is essential for meeting the president’s goal of deploying an anti-missile capability in Europe by 2015.

The goal is to complete the project in time to support the first flight test of the land-based Standard-Missile 3 interceptor in fiscal 2012. To do so, funding would be required in fiscal 2010, according to O’Reilly.

The Senate is expected to pass the Military Construction-VA bill — with the amendment likely included — this week.