A national defense spending authorization bill that would boost missile defense, troop pay and counter-terror initiatives was approved by the House on Friday with key contributions from Florida’s Republican congressional delegation, including U.S. Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Vern Buchanan and Thomas Rooney.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018 would increase national defense spending by 10 per cent over the current fiscal year, sending $688.3 billion to the Department of Defense in an effort to prioritize readiness.
“I was proud to support the full funding of our national defense (on Friday), especially given the critical impact it will have on South Florida and the inclusion of the largest pay increase our troops have received in over eight years,” Curbelo said. “This bill allocates $9.8 million for Homestead Air Reserve Base to improve security and protect our reservists and all the civilians who work on base.”
The bill also incorporates the Foreign Spill Protection Act, which Curbelo introduced earlier this year to ensure foreign entities responsible for an oil spill impacting U.S. waters and the coastline are also responsible for all cleanup costs, regardless of where the spill took place.
Curbelo, the co-chair of the Climate Solutions Caucus, said he was proud that the spending bill came as a victory for “sensible environmental policy and for all those who believe Congress needs to do more to mitigate and adapt to sea level rise and the changing climate.”
“The successful efforts of the caucus to defeat an amendment that would have discouraged taking climate change and sea level rise into account when planning for our national defense should not go unnoticed,” Curbelo said. “With military bases like Naval Air Station Key West vulnerable to sea level rise, this vote was a win for South Florida and coastal military communities across the country.”
Buchanan recently met with military leaders in Israel, Afghanistan, Germany and Kuwait to discuss counterterrorism measures, intelligence cooperation and efforts to defeat ISIS. He highlighted provisions of the NDAA that support counter-terror operations, provide military assistance to U.S. allies, boost missile defense spending by 25 percent, and increase troop pay by 2.4 percent.
“No one deserves a raise more than the brave men and women of the Armed Forces,” Buchanan said. “They put it all on the line in defense of our freedoms.”
Rooney, meanwhile, introduced an amendment to the NDAA that would require the secretary of defense to report to Congress within 180 days on efforts to implement recommendations of a recent Government Accountability Office report on traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among service members.
“With tens of thousands of our nation’s troops and veterans suffering from invisible wounds like TBI and PTSD we need to do our due diligence to ensure all service branch policies are consistent with the Department of Defense,” Rooney said. “These men and women put their lives on the line to defend our country and it is our responsibility to care for them and take all factors into consideration in military separations.”
Rooney, a co-chair of the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) Caucus, also noted that NDAA includes $10.5 billion to purchase 87 new aircraft.
“The most important job of Congress is to provide for a common defense,” Rooney said. “This bill is an important step in repairing the damage that has been done after nearly half a decade of cuts which have driven military readiness to abysmal levels.”