House Approves $611 Billion Defense Bill

Statement

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) released the following statement after voting to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for 2017.

"Protecting our nation is our first and most important responsibility. The bill we passed today ensures that our troops, including the 43,000 Marines here at Camp Pendleton, have the tools, support, and funding they need to take the fight to the enemy and win. It provides the biggest pay raise our troops have seen in six years, provides funding to modernize our military installations around the globe, improves military readiness and ensures our troops are better prepared to accomplish their missions swiftly, safely, and effectively. It's a huge boost for both our troops and the nation as a whole.

Most notably, however, the bill provides an important fix for the California National Guardsmen wrongly being asked to repay their bonuses. The burden of proof will shift off the soldiers and on to the Department of Defense to prove that those who accepted monies did so knowingly and wrongly. It also ensures that any soldier who has already repaid these monies, will be refunded every single penny and have their credit restored. After serving our country valiantly, our nation's heroes shouldn't be forced to suffer for government's bureaucratic mistakes. This will hopefully be a huge sigh of relief for these soldiers, many of whom have had their life savings raided and their credit ruined as they worked to pay back bonuses they should be able to keep.

I thank my colleagues for their hard work on this bill and look forward to its passage soon."

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