WASHINGTON- House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), today issued the following statement after completing the Conference Report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.
“We have reached bicameral agreement on the FY21 NDAA, which authorizes funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programs of the Department of Energy. As is the case every year, this agreement is the product of months of hard-fought negotiations. This year we have toiled through almost 2,200 provisions to reach compromise on important issues affecting our national security and our military. Nearly half of the Members of the House have contributed provisions to this measure.
“The agreement we have reached includes important provisions affecting our national security. Among the provisions we are most proud of are authorization of hazardous duty pay for our service members in harm’s way, improvements to military housing and programs for military families with children with special needs, addressing the shortage in military child care, authorizing $8.4 billion in military construction projects to fortify critical infrastructure and base realignment and closure clean up , important new tools to deter China and Russia, reforms to make the Pentagon more efficient, innovative, and cost-effective, significant bipartisan provisions on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and provisions that strengthen our alliance with Israel. After the tragic loss of life in Pensacola last year, the NDAA also includes a prohibition on foreign student’s ability to possess firearms on military bases.
“For 59 straight years, the NDAA has passed because Members of Congress and Presidents of both parties have set aside their own policy objectives and partisan preferences and put the needs of our military personnel and America’s security first. The time has come to do that again.”