With Rep. Slotkin's Leadership, House Passes National Defense Authorization Act

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA officer and senior Pentagon official who serves as a member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), lauded today's passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill authorizes the most robust defense budget in history, at $733 billion, as well as a 3.1% raise for service members.

"Funding our national defense should always be a bipartisan priority, and as a former Pentagon official and Army wife with a step-daughter serving on active duty, I firmly believe we have a solemn responsibility to pass a bill that funds our men and women in uniform," Slotkin said. "Today, the House passed a bill that is strong on national defense and stays true to our values as a country: it funds our military at the highest levels in history, gives our military a 3.1% pay raise, ensures protections for military families, repeals the "widow tax" which harms surviving spouses of deceased service members, strengthens provisions to combat foreign information operations and foreign adversaries that wish us harm, and enhances our military's resilience to climate change, which poses a growing threat to our national security."

"I'm also proud this bill includes the provisions I have fought to include to help our local communities in Michigan, including mitigating PFAS contamination in our state, holding the Department of Defense accountable for PFAS cleanup, and expanding opportunities for Michigan businesses to leverage our unique expertise to compete for defense contracts."

As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Slotkin secured several key provisions in the NDAA to help local Michigan communities:

Stemming the flow of PFAS contamination

Capitalizing on the power of Michigan's auto industry to inform defense innovation

Opening the door for small and medium-sized businesses in Michigan to compete for those contracts

Additional key provisions passed as part of the House NDAA include:

Repealing the "widow tax" which enables surviving spouses of deceased service members to collect the full compensation to which they are entitled

A 3.1% pay raise for members of the military

Extending paid family leave to all federal workers

Promoting diversity and inclusion in our military by codifying the military's equal opportunity policies and ending the ban on transgender military service members

Measures requiring the Department of Defense to take a number of steps to both address climate change and increase resiliency of military bases and installations

Slotkin's CODER Act, which would overhaul and modernize the DoD's software-acquisition process, while opening the door for small and medium-sized businesses in Michigan to compete for those contracts

The amendment Slotkin co-led to assert that neither the 2001 nor 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) can be invoked to justify the use of military force against Iran, which passed with bipartisan support

Slotkin's amendment to help prevent foreign information operations from interfering in the U.S. political system

Requiring DoD briefings to Congress on Russian election interference and requiring DoD to issue a strategy on countering Russian election interference in the 2020 elections

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