Walz Supports FY2016 Defense Authorization

Statement

This week, Congressman Tim Walz (D-MN) voted in support of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA):

"I am pleased the House and Senate came to an agreement on this important legislation, and I appreciate the work of my colleagues to find compromise and common ground. While this is not the bill I would have written, I believe it contains many necessary provisions for our men and women in uniform stationed around the world. I was proud to champion several measures in the bill that will help ensure the National Guard has the resources they need to do their job in our communities and abroad."

The legislation included a number of Walz provisions, including:

Suicide Prevention Resources for Military Service Members
Improves mental health care for active duty and reserve component service members by collecting best practices from State National Guard and Reserve organizations with suicide prevention and community response programs.
Requires the Secretary of Defense to develop a policy to coordinate the efforts of the Department of Defense and proven non-government suicide prevention organizations to reduce the number of suicide among service members. This will ensure service members have an opportunity to utilize additional proven resources address suicide prevention.
Extension of Freeze on National Guard Apache Attack Helicopter Transfer
Places on hold the transfer of the remaining 48 National Guard Apache Attack Helicopters identified by the Army in conjunction with the Army Aviation Restructure Initiative until the submission of the report by the National Commission on the Future of the Army on February 1, 2016. This prevents the possible loss of a capability by the National Guard.
Reserve Component Duty Status Consolidation
Directs DOD to assess consolidating reserve component duty statuses. This would increase efficiency within the Reserve Component by consolidating 30 Reserve Component duty statuses into 6 broader statuses and help prevent servicemembers from experiencing disruptions in pay and benefits as they transfer between different duty statuses.
National Security Strategy Study
Requires the Secretary of Defense to carry out a comprehensive study of the Department of Defense role in, and process for, the formulation of national security strategy. This study is important to enhance Congress' oversight of the national defense and national military strategy development and execution process, and complement its efforts to reform such strategies, such as its reform of the Quadrennial Defense Review.
Support for National Guard State Partnership Program
Requests the reauthorization of The National Guard State Partnership Program (SPP). This program is important because it provides National Guard units, to include Minnesota National Guard, an opportunity to conduct bilateral security training with foreign security forces, which helps to counter bad actors throughout the world.

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