December 8, 2021
What if I told you a lot of House Democrats and Republicans voted yes on the same bill?
And the bipartisan support was overwhelming …363 to 70… (no = 19 GOP, 51 Democrat)
I’m sure you’re wondering what in the world could they all agree on in those number?
The answer – our national defense.
Last night the House overwhelmingly passed the National Defense Authorization Act. The version that passed was definitely a compromise from earlier versions. I’ll tell you what’s in it but first — the NDAA as it’s known – is a bill that must be passed every year and sets the budget and policy for our Defense Department.
The bill that just passed the House authorizes $768 billion dollars for our national defense in 2022…including spending for our military. That’s actually $25 billion dollars more than President Biden requested.
This bill includes lots of items but some of the most notable –
- A 2.7% pay increase for our service members
- Addressing the issue of military hunger by requiring the pentagon to create a basic needs allowance for low-income service members below 130% of the federal poverty line
- More than $7 billion dollars is going to the Pacific Deterrence Initiative – a program that is meant to beef up the United States’ posture in the region and deter China
- This bill makes several significant changes to the Uniform Code of Military. One of the most significant changes is this bill removes – at least initially– the decision to prosecute crimes of sexual assault and other serious crimes from the standard military chain of command to an independent investigator in the office of the special trial counsel for each service branch.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers and other advocates say this bill doesn’t go far enough to protect military survivors of sexual assault.
On a lighter note – this NDAA also authorizes the pentagon to study and conduct filed investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena – you know that as UFOs.
Now this bill goes to the Senate. It’s unclear when or if it’ll be passed.
Read the entire 3000+ page National Defense Authorization Act here.
