Senators and White House officials held a meeting Thursday to draft a possible bill that seeks to implement tougher restrictions on Iran and keep the U.S. in a 2015 nuclear deal with the Middle Eastern country, Reuters reported Friday.

Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, national security adviser under President Donald Trump’s administration, met with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) at the White House to discuss possible measures.

Those include the possible termination of a requirement that directs the U.S. president to recertify the nuclear deal every 90 days and amendments to “sunset provisions” that would enable the U.S. government to reimpose sanctions if Iran’s nuclear efforts escalate.

Lawmakers have initiated efforts to draft a bipartisan bill that would authorize the president not to reimpose sanctions on Iran’s oil products as the nuclear deal approaches another deadline this week.

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions Thursday on five Iran-based companies for their involvement in activities that support the country’s ballistic missile development program.

The White House on Thursday decided to impose a freeze on all security aid to Pakistan in response to the South Asian country’s refusal to quell terrorist groups, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The decision could suspend annual aid worth approximately $1.3 billion, which includes $1.1 billion in Coalition Support Funds the Defense Department provides to help cover counterterrorism-related costs in Pakistan.

The suspension includes a freeze on the delivery of U.S. military equipment to Pakistan but will not affect civilian support programs in the country.

“Pakistan has the ability to get this money back in the future, but they have to take decisive action,” said Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman for the State Department.

The State Department on Thursday also included Pakistan on a watch list of countries for religious freedom violations.

The measures came three days after President Donald Trump said in a Twitter post Monday that Pakistan offered a “safe haven” for terrorists that U.S. forces crack down in Afghanistan, the report added.

Senate lawmakers on Thursday discussed military spending matters as they work to strike a budget deal for fiscal 2018 before the current continuing resolution expires on Jan. 19, Defense News reported Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said Thursday in a floor speech that reductions to discretionary defense spending have exceeded nondefense spending cuts by approximately $85 billion since fiscal 2013.

McConnell’s statement was in response to Democrats’ push for equal increases in defense and nondefense spending.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said McConnell failed to cite increases to overseas contingency operations funds that are not covered by budget caps.

“If you include the overseas contingency operations funding, the reality is that overall defense spending has gone up, not down, over this time period while non-defense discretionary spending has been severely cut,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has called for a budget agreement that incorporates a package for health care, disaster aid and protection for young immigrants covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“Ultimately the budget agreement must lift the caps with parity between defense and urgent domestic priorities,” Schumer added.

The U.S. Air Force aims to complete by spring a new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flight plan that will cover operations of the service branch’s future platforms and technologies such as artificial intelligence systems, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

Lt. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson, USAF’s deputy chief of staff for ISR, told C4ISRNET the plan will include five-year increments through 2035 and strategies to address future threats in the air, cyber and space domains.

The blueprint will also dictate hardware systems that the service branch must acquire to comply with future requirements for sensors and unmanned aerial systems, the report noted.

USAF also included software acquisition strategies in the plan.

The Treasury Department has prohibited from dealing with the U.S. five Iran-based companies for their involvement in activities that support the Middle Eastern country’s ballistic missile development efforts.

The five entities are considered subordinates to Iran-based Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group that has been sanctioned by the U.S., United Nations and the European Union for its role as a developer and manufacturer of solid-propellant ballistic missiles for Iran, the Treasury said Thursday.

The five Iranian entities include:

• Shahid Eslami Research Center
• Shahid Kharrazi Industries
• Shahid Moghaddam Industries
• Shahid Sanikhani Industries
• Shahid Shustari Industries

“These sanctions target key entities involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program, which the Iranian regime prioritizes over the economic well-being of the Iranian people,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The U.S. Navy will kick off an effort to replace its fleet of 27 C-2A Greyhound aircraft with 38 CMV-22B Osprey aircraft this year, with plans to conduct transition from 2020 through 2026, USNI News reported Wednesday.

The U.S. Fleet Forces Command issued a draft environmental assessment that includes new details on the planned transition, which was announced in January 2015.

C-2A planes provide personnel and cargo delivery support to the Navy’s fleet of nuclear aircraft carriers in U.S. and abroad.

The CMV-22B Osprey variant will feature a larger fuel tank, additional communications platforms and a public address system and will be based at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia and Naval Air Station North Island in California, where C-2As currently operate.

The Navy aims to achieve full operational capability for CMV-22B in 2024 and conduct full deployment in 2028, the assessment document noted.

The service branch will start facility upgrades this year, although it has yet to decide where to place the Fleet Replacement Squadron that will train all Navy Osprey pilots.