Kilmer Votes to Support Servicemembers, Military Families, and Federal Civilian Workforce
Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, Representative Derek Kilmer (WA-06) voted to support H.R.6395, the William M. Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021. The bipartisan bill authorizes funding for the Department of Defense and passed the House of Representatives 295-125.
“If you serve this country, Congress should have your back and invest in you and your family. I’m proud that this bill includes a number of measures to support our troops and their families,” said Rep. Kilmer. “In our region, we also have talented civilians doing vitally important work to keep our country safe, so I’m glad that we were able to include measures that benefit those workers and our region’s economy as well.”
“At this pivotal moment in our nation’s history, and in an increasingly divisive political climate, for the 60th consecutive year the Congress has proven that our constitutional obligation to ‘provide for the common defense’ is far more important than politics,” said Representative Adam Smith (WA-09), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “I am incredibly proud of the work that the House Armed Services Committee was able to accomplish this year, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and strongly believe the FY21 NDAA is an excellent piece of legislation that delivers for our military. Thanks to the work of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, the bill we passed today supports our troops, reflects our values, and provides for a strong national defense.”
Supports Servicemembers and Federal Workers
The bill includes measures supported by Rep. Kilmer for American service members and their families, including a 3% pay increase for service members. The bill also authorizes increased funding to clean up of drinking water on military bases contaminated by PFAS chemicals, continues to invest in improving the oversight and management of housing for military personnel and their families, makes improvements to sexual assault prevention and response programs, and develops several key programs to promote and enhance diversity and inclusion programs in our military.
The NDAA also prohibits the Department of Defense from excluding any civilian employees from their collective bargaining rights and includes the Elijah Cummings Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination Act, passed by the House in January 2019, which strengthens equal employment opportunity protections for federal employees and strengthens prohibitions against discrimination and retaliation against whistleblowers.
Invests in Defense Communities
The legislation also included an amendment championed by Rep. Kilmer to expand eligibility for the Office of Economic Adjustment’s Defense Communities Infrastructure Program (DCIP), which helps communities near defense installations - like those around Naval Base Kitsap and JBLM - plan for and implement future infrastructure projects that improve the quality of life for people, including civilians and members of the armed services and their families, living in the surrounding areas.
Kilmer said, “With the challenges we’ve seen at Gorst and coming into the Shipyard, providing more funding for this program could yield some direct benefits in Kitsap County.”
Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The legislation proactively strengthens our nation’s defenses to pandemics by including a $1 billion Pandemic Preparedness and Resilience National Security Fund, boosts America’s industrial base resilience, helps Maritime Security Program carriers keep ships fully crewed during COVID-19, supports NATO’s multinational response to the pandemic, and provides funds to the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program with an increased focus on cooperative biological engagement to detect and confront biological threats.
Reducing Jet Noise
Over the past several years, Rep. Kilmer has pushed the Department of Defense to fund efforts to reduce the noise of the Navy’s EA-18G Growler through his work on the Appropriations Committee. In the Defense Appropriations bill, Rep. Kilmer secured a provision requiring the Navy to continue monitoring jet noise in real-time and to make that data publicly available. He also successfully fought for a new $50 million program to help communities make infrastructure improvements to mitigate excessive noise impacts caused by military jets. In the NDAA, Rep. Kilmer fought to provide additional funds for the Secretary of the Navy to continue developing technology that could be installed on Growler engines to reduce their noise.
Ensures the Military is a Responsible Climate Partner
The NDAA ensures that the military makes progress toward being a responsible partner in fighting climate change. This year the NDAA establishes a new “National Academies Climate Security Roundtable” within the National Academy of Science to establish best practices for identifying and disseminating climate indicators and warnings to ensure that environmental security is included in operational planning and intelligence analysis. The legislation also authorizes additional funding to support research that advances long-range forecasting of seasonal and subseasonal weather patterns, which would provide national security officials with advanced warning of potentially destabilizing events.
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