Pay Hike For Servicemembers, Vacation Rollover For Workers In Defense Bill
A 3% pay increase for members of the armed services, a plan to build new Coast Guard polar ice breakers and give federal workers like those at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard the ability to roll over unused 2020 vacation are among the provisions in this year's defense bill, which passed the House of Representatives Tuesday on a 335-78 vote.
“If you serve this country, Congress should have your back," said Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, who supported its passage. "This bipartisan legislation makes vital investments in servicemembers and their families, including a number of measures that I championed."
Kilmer had earlier this year introduced legislation aimed at giving federal workers, including the 14,000-plus workforce at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the option to carry over a greater percentage of unspent vacation time. The bill includes the ability to take 25% more.
"To say, 'we know you couldn't use (leave) in the middle of a pandemic when it's been all hands on deck … that these workers couldn't access the are benefits they signed up for … in my view that's not fair," Kilmer said in an interview with the Kitsap Sun.
The National Defense Authorization Act, which will set 2021's policies and goals at the Pentagon, now heads to the Senate before arriving at President Donald J. Trump's desk. The defense bill has passed Congress for nearly six decades on a bipartisan basis.
But whether Trump will sign it is unclear.
He has been threatening to veto the bill unless it ends protections under a 1996 law for internet companies that shield them from being held liable for their users' content. Meanwhile, there had already been a hang-up with the president in the bill, in that it includes stripping names of Confederate officers off military bases, an idea he has opposed.
If Trump vetoes the legislation, and the same House members vote to support it, there would be ample support to override his veto. But it's still an open question as to what the Senate will do.
Meanwhile, Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, took to the Senate floor Tuesday to praise the commitment to build six new polar icebreakers for the Coast Guard to help them operate in the increasingly competitive Arctic environment. Cantwell called it a "national security" and "environmental" issue with bipartisan support.
“This is why it's so important for us to put the money and investment into a program to get us icebreakers so that we, too, can look at this northern waterway and passage and say to the United States of America and to the world community, ‘Yes, we will be in the Arctic as well," she said in her speech.
The defense bill includes a number of other initiatives that will impact Kitsap County. Speaking of employees at Bremerton's shipyard, the largest Kitsap County employer, Kilmer was able to secure a five-year agreement to ensure its workforce at Yokosuka, Japan, could be paid overtime without congressional action.
By: Josh Farley
Source: Kitsap Sun