Rep. Calvert: NDAA Will Help Modernize Military and Support our Troops

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) voted along with a bipartisan majority (350 to 80) of the House of Representatives to approve the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“With the passage of the NDAA, Congress has once again sent a strong bipartisan message that we will and must invest in our pressing national security priorities in order to confront a rising China and emerging threats around the globe,” said Rep. Calvert. “Congress and taxpayers simply can’t afford to throw money blindly at outdated and unnecessary processes and programs, we need to modernize our military rapidly by adopting the latest technologies and reforming our inefficient procurement process. I am pleased by the continued support for the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program, which I led the effort to establish last year to realize our technical edge on a faster timeline.”

“I’m also pleased to see the NDAA takes care of the foundation of our national defense – the men and women in uniform. The bill provides our troops with a pay raise and additional resources to help military families deal with rising costs. The NDAA also removes the COVID vaccine mandate for uniformed personnel. It’s become clear that this mandate was doing far more harm than good, including a negative effect on recruitment. The Defense Department should act quickly to ensure benefits and opportunities to re-enlist are available for otherwise eligible servicemembers who were discharged because of the COVID vaccine mandate.”

NDAA Highlights

(Provided by the House Armed Services Committee)

Servicemember Pay and Benefits

• Supports a 4.6% pay increase for servicemembers.
• Includes $500 million for additional housing allowances to counteract the skyrocketing cost of rent on military families. 
• Authorizes an additional $250 million to reduce costs of food and other necessities at military commissaries.
• Expands eligibility for Basic Needs Allowance for low-income servicemembers supporting a family.

Vaccine Mandate

• The FY23 NDAA rescinds the COVID-19 vaccination mandate on all active and reserve component servicemembers and ends servicemember separations for failure to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Encourages the Secretary of Defense to use the authority Congress gave him to ensure all servicemembers discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine receive full veterans benefits and to retroactively provide ineligible former servicemembers such benefits.

Meeting America’s National Security Challenges

• Reverses President Biden’s reckless cuts to our national security, restoring cuts to procurement, missile defense, and military construction.
• Includes unprecedented levels of investment in emerging technologies, including AI, biotechnology, quantum computing, and autonomous system.
• Improves congressional oversight over the Pilot Program to Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT), which Rep. Calvert fought to include in the previous NDAA.
• Provides adequate funding levels to:
  • Counteract the damaging impacts record inflation is having on military readiness, DoD buying power, and servicemembers and their families;
  • Rebuild our military; and
  • Keep pace with the unprecedented Chinese military expansion and modernization.

The FY23 NDAA also included the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). Local provisions in WRDA that were requested by Rep. Calvert include:

• Murrieta Creek: The bill authorizes federal funding necessary to complete future phases of the project.
• Corona Airport: The bill includes language in support of the city of Corona’s request to extend its current lease with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to operate an airport in the Prado Basin.