LaLota Applauds House Passage of Annual Defense Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, July 14th, 2023, Rep. Nick LaLota (NY-01), a Navy Veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement applauding the House passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included a number of LaLota’s priorities.

“I’m working to support our Veterans and our servicemembers every day. This year’s NDAA increases soldier pay, improves housing, education, and childcare funding, takes on China, cuts back on wasteful spending, and ensures our military is the best in the world,” said LaLota. “I look forward to continuing to work with my House and Senate colleagues to get the job done for America’s heroes.”

Background:

The House Armed Services Committee plays an instrumental role in ensuring our military has the policies and resources necessary to defend America.  The culmination of the committee’s work is passing the NDAA, the annual bill that provides funding and policy updates to the Department of Defense. The NDAA is an annual and historically bipartisan bill that authorizes funding levels and provides authorities for the U.S. military and other critical defense priorities, ensuring our troops have the training, equipment, and resources they need to carry out their missions.

In this year’s NDAA are several of LaLota’s priorities:

• Ensuring legal protections for servicemembers stationed overseas to ensure they have the right to counsel, competent translation services, a prompt trial, and other protections our servicemembers have earned and deserve
• A 5.2% across-the-board pay raise for servicemembers, the largest single pay increase in over twenty years
• Fully funds military exercises with our allies and partners in the Pacific to counter China’s growing reach.
• A report on current nursing staffing levels within the Department of Defense (DoD) to ensure proper staffing levels so our servicemembers have access to available benefits
• Preventing fraudulent payments in the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program
• Over $400 million to support military housing
• Provides nearly $200 million in missile defense
• Cuts $39 billion in inefficient, obsolete, and unnecessary programs and weapons systems
• Mitigate the ability of foreign businesses to buy land near American military bases
• Establish a program to give DoD employees the knowledge, training, and awareness to help mitigate accidental drug overdoses or drug use, specifically related to fentanyl, xylazine, and other illicit drugs
• Review of the Department of Defense on if they are contracting with companies that violate the U.S. Export Control Act, specifically with regard to conducting business with China and Russia
• Increases funding for essential military construction projects and expands logistics capabilities in the Indo-Pacific to ensure our forces can sustain the fight
• Increases funding for innovative new technologies needed to deter the CCP on future battlefields, including AI, autonomous systems, cyber, mobile micro-nuclear reactors, and high-energy lasers
• Over $450 million for childcare and education for military children
• Require DoD financial advisors to act in the best interest of the servicemember’s widows to ensure no family is taken advantage of
• Encourage DoD to utilize rare earth minerals mined in the U.S. over foreign minerals
• Conduct oversight and audits of security assistance to Ukraine to cut down on waste, fraud, and abuse
• Provides investments in artificial intelligence, hypersonics, unmanned autonomous vehicles, and robotics
• Reaffirms U.S. support for the defense of Taiwan
• Requires DoD to determine how they can better use National Guard and Reserve forces for cyberspace activities
• Requires the Secretary of Defense to produce a report on the feasibility of developing and deploying asymmetric naval assets in defense of Taiwan
• Established  Principal Transition Advisors by creating a new senior civilian position in each service to help facilitate the transition of technologies to programs from innovation organizations within the DoD, industry, and academia
• Promoting the collaboration of the DoD and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum to educate visitors on the military's response to 9/11 and provide information for visitors of the opportunities they have to serve
• Requiring information from DoD on the roll-out plan and timeline for Next Generation 9-1-1 implementation to ensure our servicemembers and their families are safe

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