Kaine Applauds Virginia Wins In 2016 Defense Bill

Press Release

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today praised the committee's Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes amendments introduced by Kaine condemning sequestration cuts and strengthening credentialing programs, as well as a number of other provisions supported by Kaine that benefit Virginia's shipbuilding industry and defense community. The bill was reported out of committee today and will now advance to the full Senate for consideration. Prior to the markup, Kaine sent a letter to Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) voicing support for these priorities and advocating for necessary resources.

"I'm proud we reported out a bill that includes many provisions that will benefit Virginia's defense community, including support for our servicemembers and their families, funding to maintain our carrier fleet and bolster the shipbuilding industry, and my amendments to improve servicemembers' post-service employment prospects through reforms to credentialing and put the committee on record against harmful sequestration cuts. Over the past two years, sequester cuts have disproportionately impacted Virginia and forced the Department of Defense to manage the complex challenges of today based on a spending plan set years ago before the rise of current national security threats. As a result of my amendment, our bill directs Congress to consider every mechanism available to enact relief from sequestration for both defense and non-defense programs. I'm also pleased we avoided a new BRAC round, which would have caused anxiety and inflicted harm on communities connected to any affected bases while costing billions of dollars to implement up-front.

"While I applaud Chairman McCain's aggressive initiatives to make the Department of Defense more efficient, I am concerned that some of these reforms did not take the measured and thoughtful approach expected of this committee. In an effort to streamline headquarters, the committee drastically cut $1.7 billion from operational accounts, which may impact a wide variety of critical programs including funeral honors for servicemembers and veterans, suicide prevention, and veterans' hiring. I offered an amendment to take a more calculated approach that would have achieved similar results while protecting these programs, but unfortunately it was not adopted into the final bill."

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