National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KELLY of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I rise to express concerns with the FY20 NDAA in its current form.

Specifically, I am concerned with the plan to cut $15 billion from the top line requested by the President and, more specifically, $1.2 billion from the President's request for military personnel accounts.

I spent 33 years in uniform serving the Nation but can't support this bill in its current form without changes to the amendment process. While it is true that personnel accounts have historically had money left over at the end of the year, several factors will likely make fiscal year 2020 different.

Over the last few years, there have been funds left over associated with the transition to the new military-blended retirement system because fewer servicemembers are opting into the new retirement system than expected. However, the opt-in period ends this year, so there will be no leftover funds related to this in FY 2020.

Also, in fiscal year 2019, the Army will likely fall short of its end strength goals by approximately 9,500 troops, which will result in excess funds for 2019 because fewer troops came into the Army. However, the Army is likely to meet their comparatively modest end strength goal of FY 2020, so there will likely be no excess funds relating to end strength.

Finally, the 3.1 percent automatic pay raise and the proposed increase in total force end strength means that personnel costs will increase, not go down.

In sum, there is likely to be no excess funding in the military personnel accounts in FY 2020.

In addition, given the provisions in this bill that would greatly restrict reprogramming authority, I am concerned that, if personnel accounts are underfunded, the Department may not have sufficient transfer authority to reprogram funds to fix it.

There are more important provisions in this bill, and I particularly want to thank Chairwoman Speier for her work in arriving at a bipartisan subcommittee mark. Specifically, the bill would provide important end strength increases and provide additional benefits for military spouses seeking employment.

In closing, I want to thank Ranking Member Thornberry and Chairman Smith for their leadership. I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in a bipartisan manner to improve this bill which is so important for our troops and their families.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source