In last month’s Washington Report, we announced that on September 23, 2021, the House passed a $778 billion National Defense Authorization Act by a bipartisan vote of 316-113. The Senate has version has yet to be approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and sent to the Senate floor for a vote. In a press release upon House passage, we wrote, “FMA understands the critical importance of the NDAA each year and the need for its ultimate passage into law. There is much in this bill that FMA supports, including the efforts to combat sexual harassment and assault, the pay raise for the uniformed military, and the extension of parental leave benefits.” As discussed in a separate article, FMA strongly opposes the House of Representatives’ premature action related to the DOD probationary period (Section 1108) and are actively working to prevent its inclusion in the final conference report.

The pay raise for the uniformed military is set at 2.7% and preserves the tradition of pay parity between uniformed military servicemembers and their civilian counterparts across the federal government. At $778 billion, this NDAA represents a $38 billion increase over the 2021 NDAA. $12.5 billion of this funding is marked for the public and private shipyards.

The NDAA now goes to the Senate, where it has passed the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and must now be voted on by the entire Senate. According to Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), the bill “would fund 14 military construction projects in Virginia, totaling $795 million. They include a new submarine pier, a new aircraft maintenance hangar, and airfield improvements at Naval Station Norfolk.

Additionally, Kaine said the measure would pay for a saltwater system for the carrier repair drydock at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and a fuel system maintenance dock at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.”

Investment in our public shipyards remains a key priority for FMA. Between 2015 and 2019, the average wait time for nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines to undergo routine maintenance went from 100 days to 1019 days as heavy equipment ages out of its usable lifespan, and as hiring has not been able to keep pace with the work assigned to our public shipyards. While the additional funding for the public shipyards is a good down payment on the funding that is required to allow the shipyards to function at full capacity, more is needed. FMA has endorsed the bipartisan SHIPYARD Act, which would provide an additional $21 billion of funding for our public shipyards and views it as a critical investment in America’s Navy. While the full funding was not provided in the draft 2022 NDAA, FMA will continue to advocate for this critical piece of legislation.

The content of the NDAA is critically important, because it determines what the Department of Defense and the Armed Forces can, and cannot, do for the following year. Unfortunately, the timing is also important. The 2022 Fiscal Year began on October 1st, 2021. Rather than being able to plan for the year in advance, the military and DOD still don’t know what will be funded and what won’t. We’re already more than a month into the fiscal year, and this planning can not even begin. Every day that is lost can never be recovered. FMA will continue to work with our partners in the Senate to bring this bill across the finish line, so that federal managers at the DOD can do their jobs without the added burden of being unable to adequately plan for the future.