The House has introduced its mammoth $883.7 billion defense policy bill for fiscal year 2025, legislation that includes a series of controversial measures, including the rehiring of troops expelled for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. and one that gives state governors veto power over a Space Force transfer.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was approved Wednesday night by the House Armed Services Committee in a 57-1 vote after more than 700 amendments were negotiated in about 12 hours. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) was the only vote against the legislation.
Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said the bill “will help revitalize the defense industrial base and build the ready, capable and lethal fighting force we need to deter China and our other opponents.”
The bill follows the spending limits outlined in last year’s debt ceiling agreement, with just a 1% increase over the fiscal 2024 NDAA. But the House legislation revolves around the billions of dollars proposed by the Pentagon, adding funding for submarines, cutting dollars for fighter planes and delaying the retirement of dozens of aircraft.
Also included were widely supported quality-of-life initiatives for the military, such as a pay increase of about 20% for junior enlisted soldiers and increases in soldier housing allowances.
The one-day appointment ended unusually early, just after 10 p.m., with few culture war battles, a change in tone from previous years when partisan debates often extended the proceedings until after midnight.
But this year’s bill had controversial measures.
Here are the key takeaways from the legislation: what passed, what didn’t pass, and what the major political fights are likely to be in the future.
Space National Guard standoff
One of the most striking changes at the time was a measure that reserved for state governors the right to approve the transfer of their Air National Guard units to the Space Force.
The Biden administration had previously proposed transferring service members from the Air National Guard to the relatively new Space Force, a request that was opposed by all 50 state governors and several House and Senate lawmakers.
The effort has been controversial as transferring Air National Guard members to the Space Force would make them part of the active military, a plan that detractors say would undermine the nation’s National Guard system.
But a measure introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) seeks to dilute the Air Force plan by requiring governors’ approval of any Guard transfers, as well as requiring annual reports to Congress on how such transfers affect the Space Force and Air Force capabilities. Air National Guard.
The measure was approved by voice vote as part of a bipartisan package of amendments.
COVID-19 Callback
The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday also adopted an NDAA amendment that would require the Pentagon to rehire U.S. military personnel who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
Offered by Representative Nancy Mace (RS.C.), the measure was adopted by voice vote.
Mace said the amendment would correct the unfair dismissal of 8,400 service members who did not get the vaccine when it became mandatory for the U.S. military for a brief period in 2021 and 2022, before the text of the fiscal 2023 NDAA forced the Pentagon to rescind it. -there.
“The Department has thus far been unable to recruit significant numbers of military personnel separated under the COVID mandate. This is unacceptable,” she said. “These individuals have valuable skills and many already have the training our military desperately needs.”
It’s unclear, however, whether the measure will make it to the final NDAA, as the GOP-led House committee will meet with the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee to reconcile differences in the bill before full passage. in Congress.
If it’s not broken…
Lawmakers are clinging to various legacy systems in the U.S. military, not ready to see the various fighter planes and bombs consigned to the graveyard.
Included in the House NDAA is language that would block an Air Force effort to retire 32 F-22A Raptors by fiscal year 2027, aircraft that the service has said would be too expensive to maintain combat-ready.
Also being saved from the chopping block are 26 F-15E Strike Eagles, which the Air Force expects to retire due to less capable engines and had planned to stop buying after fiscal year 2025.
And the bill intervenes to prevent the removal of the B83 fireball, a gravitational nuclear bomb with the ability to vaporize everything within a radius of more than 3 kilometers – at least 80 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
But the committee’s bill allows the Air Force to cut 56 A-10 Warthogs — low-flying support aircraft that were saved long ago because of their usefulness to troops in Afghanistan. The planes recently became obsolete with the US withdrawal from the country.
Also targeted in the bill was the Pentagon’s troubled and expensive Joint Strike Fighter program, with lawmakers opting to cut 10 of the 68 F-35 fighters requested by the Pentagon, about $1 billion in savings that would feed back into the program to fix problems. long term. issues maintained.
Quality of Life Fixes
This year’s House draft NDAA took aim at several military quality-of-life issues, an undertaking stemming from a 15-month review of how to provide better care for troops and their families.
“No soldier should have to live in precarious conditions. No military family should have to rely on food stamps to feed their children. And no one serving this country should have to wait weeks to see a doctor or mental health specialist,” said Rogers, the committee chairman. “This bill goes a long way toward solving these problems.”
The bill seeks to increase soldiers’ take-home pay in an era of high inflation through a dramatic change to military pay scales, with junior enlisted soldiers receiving a nearly 20 percent pay raise next year. This means that almost all military personnel will earn more than $30,000 annually in base pay.
Also included in the bill are increases in the housing allowance for soldiers, increased eligibility for the military’s basic living allowance, and improved pay and benefits for Department of Defense child care workers – measures designed to help younger military families while maintaining troops in service. longer and attracting potential recruits.
These measures are in addition to a 4.5% pay increase for all military personnel next year.
Satellite scare in Russia
Russia’s development of a nuclear weapon in space was also on lawmakers’ minds, with an amendment adopted that would require a report on the impact of detonating such a weapon beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
The measure, introduced by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), also requires a report from the U.S. government on whether intelligence sources were “compromised or lost” following the leak of classified information earlier this year about the development of such weapon by Russia.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) in February first alerted the public to what Moscow was doing when he cryptically warned of a new national security threat.
Moulton said he offered the change because it is vital to “understand the consequences” of information leaks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has denied having developed or prepared to deploy a nuclear weapon in space.
What didn’t go in
Committee markup saw several amendments overwhelmingly rejected, including one from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) that would have banned the U.S. from sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, a measure defeated in a 48-10 vote.
Gaetz also tried but failed to insert an amendment into the bill that would have prevented Ukraine from receiving aid from presidential cuts.
Meanwhile, Moulton initially suggested but withdrew an amendment that targeted F-35 issues, allowing the Secretary of Defense to seize the intellectual property of Lockheed Martin – the fighter’s manufacturer – a failed move that nevertheless opened up debate between the members.
“We all know the F-35 program is behind schedule,” Moulton said. “It’s way over budget and not delivering the combat-ready programs we need.”
Several members of the Republican Party expressed support for such an effort later, but the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), said it would be “no small thing for the government to confiscate intellectual property” and probably “a lot, very, very expensive.”
The project now goes to the Chamber plenary. Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to adopt its version of the NDAA in June.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
