Congressman Horsford Votes to Pass FY2022 NDAA With Key Wins for Nevada’s Fourth District

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Steven Horsford (D-NV-04) released the following statement after voting for final passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars he secured for military projects in Nevada's Fourth District. The FY2022 NDAA delivers key quality-of-life improvements for Nevada servicemembers and makes long-awaited progress to improve racial equity in the military and prevent sexual assault.

"The bipartisan FY2022 NDAA is a historic investment in America's service members that will make our nation stronger and safer. Since I joined the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year, I've worked closely with my colleagues to make sure Nevada's priorities were included in our defense spending. I'm proud that the FY2022 NDAA includes funding for key projects in Nevada's Fourth District, including military housing, environmental clean-up, on-base construction projects, and expansion of the MQ-9 program.

"America's national security rests on the strength and bravery of our service members. As we consider defense spending levels, their well-being should always be our top priority. Thanks to the leadership of House and Senate Democrats, the FY2022 NDAA gives our service members a well-deserved raise and makes long-overdue changes to improve racial equity and support survivors of military sexual trauma. Together, these changes will make our military fairer and more welcoming to all the heroes who wish to serve."

Key provisions in the FY2022 NDAA include:

Military Construction Funding for Nevada's Fourth District

• Creech Air Force Base: $2.2 million to the Warrior Fitness Training Center (Planning and Design) and $14.2 million to the Mission Support Facilities (Construction). The bill includes a total of $16.4 million in military construction funding for NV-04 above the original House-passed NDAA.
• Nevada National Security Site: $135,000,000 in construction funding to expand the Nevada National Security Site's U1a complex, which plays a critical role in ensuring a safe, secure, and effective nuclear stockpile without the need for explosive nuclear testing, and $60.7 million to the Nevada National Security Site for defense environmental cleanup.
• Hawthorne Army Depot: $500 million in Army Depot Capital Investment Funding, which will ultimately strengthen recapitalization efforts at Hawthorne Army Depot.
• $200 million in funding to support planning and design of worldwide military construction projects, including badly needed dormitory repairs and improvements.

District Related Procurement and Funding

MQ-9 Procurement:

• $127,387,000 in MQ-9 aircraft and MQ-9 payload procurement. This ensures the continued procurement of the MQ-9 platform which is central to the mission conducted every day at Creech Air Force Base. This funding will allow the Air Force to procure four additional remotely piloted aircraft, easing the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance shortfall currently faced by combatant commanders.
• $144,287,000 in MQ-9 modernization funding, ensuring the long-term relevancy of the platform as the Department of Defense (DoD) transitions into near-peer competition.
• $103,186,000 in MQ-9 Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation funding, which will dramatically improve the MQ-9's ability to operate in highly contested environments like the Indo-Pacific.
• $103,046,000 in MQ-9 Operations and Maintenance funding, which fills the requests from CENTCOM and AFRICOM for additional MQ-9 combat lines, most of which will be operated from Creech Air Force Base.
• $5,000,000 increase in Contract Adversary Air funding, directly benefiting contract adversary air professionals training our Air Force pilots in air-to-air tactics at Nellis Air Force Base.

Congressman Horsford's Amendments

• $50 million in funding for Tactically Responsive Space Launch (TacRL), and language in Section 1609 requiring the Secretary to make specific improvements to the TacRL program and transition it to a program of record in the future-years defense program.
• Pilot Program to Test New Software to Track Emissions at Certain Military Installations: The program will allow the DoD to establish a pilot program to use emerging technology to track carbon emissions from military installations in real-time.
• Pilot Program on Data Repositories to Facilitate the Development of Artificial Intelligence Capabilities: This amendment requires the Department to establish data repositories containing DoD data sets that will help small companies develop artificial intelligence software and technology.

Other Provisions Directly Benefiting the District

• Combatant Commander ISR Risk Assessments Reporting Requirement: Requires each commander of a geographic combatant command to provide an independent assessment of the operational risk to that command posed by the restructuring and inventory divestments projected in the Modernization Plan for Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance for the Department of the Air Force.

Priorities for Servicemembers and Military Families

• Increase in Basic Pay: Supports increase in military basic pay by 2.7%.
• Basic Needs Allowance for Low-Income Service Members: Authorizes the Secretary of Defense to pay a basic needs allowance to a qualified service member.
• Parental Leave for Service Members: Increases the allowable parental leave for primary and secondary caregivers including foster parents.
• Child Care: Expands the in-home childcare pilot program providing financial assistance for in-home childcare.
• Exceptional Family Members: Establishes an Exceptional Family Member Program Advisory Council to better support military families who have members with special needs.
• Impact Aid: Authorizes $50 million for the purpose of aiding local educational agencies with military dependent students, and $10 million for local educational agencies eligible to receive a payment for children with severe disabilities and $10 million to local educational agencies determined by the Secretary of Defense to have higher concentrations of military children with severe disabilities.
• Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH): Requires a report by the Department of Defense on family size within the military including if BAH accurately assesses moving costs for military families.
• Paid Parental Bereavement Leave for Federal Employees: Provides federal employees with two weeks of paid parental bereavement leave.
• Incentive and Special Pays: Requires the military to provide Reserve and National Guard service members incentive and special duty pays at the same rate as their active-duty counterparts.
• Pilot Program to Establish Employment Fellowship Opportunities for Military Spouses: Establishes a three-year pilot program to provide employment support to the spouses of members of the Armed Forces through a paid fellowship with employers across a variety of industries.

Priorities for Equity and Justice

• Removal of Chain of Command from Prosecutions: For the first time since the creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, this bill removes the Commander from decisions related to the prosecution of covered crimes including rape, sexual assault, murder, and manslaughter, among other felony crimes.
• Independence of the Special Prosecutor: Removes prosecution decisions for covered crimes from the command and places it in an independent special trial counsel within each military department. The lead special trial counsel reports directly to the Service Secretary without intervening authority. The charges of crimes under the jurisdiction of the Special Trial Counsel – murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, sexual assault, and other offenses – are binding on the convening authority.
• Criminalization of Sexual Harassment: Criminalizes sexual harassment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. All claims of sexual harassment are now required to be investigated by an independent investigator outside the chain of command.
• Sentencing Reform: Establishes judge-alone sentencing as well as crime-specific sentencing parameters to increase equity within the military justice system and address racial disparities.
• Increases the Notification for Survivors of Sexual Assault: Directs the Services to notify survivors of sexual assault about the outcomes of any administrative action taken against their perpetrator. Ensures victims of crimes are provided as much information as possible without prejudicing the criminal proceeding.
• Codifies Human Relations, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training: Requires the Secretary of each military department to conduct ongoing training programs regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. These programs will include training on racism, discrimination, harassment, reprisal, and more. This provision updates outdated diversity training requirements.
• Violent Extremism Report: Requires DoD to submit a report on including a criminal article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice to address violent extremism.
• Recruitment of Service Members to Extremist Groups: Directs the Secretary of Defense to provide a briefing on all studies regarding efforts of extremist organizations to recruit members of the armed forces, and a strategy to develop and implement training to prevent such recruitment efforts.

Investments in Minority-Serving Institutions, Research, and Development

• Authorizes a historic $5.8 billion increase above the President's Budget Request in funding for research, development, testing, and evaluation, including a 24.7% increase in defense-wide basic research, applied research, and advanced technology development.
• Makes significant new investments in academic partnerships, and more than doubles the budget request's support for activities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (+$42.1 million).
• Requires the Secretary of Defense to develop a plan to promote defense research at minority institutions, and to support the development of capabilities to enable minority institutions to more effectively compete for federal research funding.
• Authorizes the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Modernization Act of 2021 for the fields of the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.
• Defense Research Plan: Establishes a requirement for the Secretary of Defense to develop a plan to promote defense research at minority institutions. Authorizes the Secretary to undertake activities to support minority institutions to support the development of capabilities to compete for federal research funding opportunities more effectively. Requires the Secretary to establish goals and incentives for certain research institutions to increase efforts to work with minority institutions.
• Annual Reports on Racial and Ethnic Demographics in the Uniform Code of Military Justice: Requires the secretaries of each service to provide detailed demographic information including sex, ethnicity, and rank on both the principal and victim of an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The report will include investigations, nonjudicial punishment, administrative action, and all levels of courts-martial.
• Female and Minority Participation in Military Service Academies and the Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (SROTC): Requires a report on gender, race, and ethnicity at the service academies and SROTC and a plan to increase the diversity within both.
• Briefing on the Recognition of African American Servicemembers in Department of Defense (DoD) Naming Practices: Directs the Secretary of Defense to provide a briefing to the congressional defense committees on a list of all military installations, infrastructure, vessels, and weapon systems that are currently named after African Americans who served in the Armed Forces and an explanation of the steps being taken to recognize the service of African Americans who have served in the Armed Forces with honor, heroism, and distinction.
• Program to Improve Relations Between Members of the Armed Forces and Military Communities: Requires the Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness to conduct a survey of service members on demographics, support services, availability for housing and opportunities for spouses, initiatives by the communities to address diversity and inclusion, and more. This survey will result in a report regarding the creations of positive relationships between communities and the military.