Conference Report on H.R. William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). I would like to start by thanking Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Thornberry, and the House Armed Services Committee staff who have worked tirelessly throughout this past year to get us to this point. It's a good bill and I encourage my colleagues to support the conference report.

As the Chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee, I worked closely with members on and off the committee to ensure the bill addressed key priority areas affecting our military.

First, the bill includes a number of bipartisan provisions aimed at addressing climate change. The bill does the following: requires an update to the Department of Defense Climate Change Roadmap; requires a report on the implementation of provisions from the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act related to installation master planning, updates to the Unified Facilities Criteria, sea-level rise modeling, and climate assessment tools; includes an alternative fuel vehicle pilot program to require the military departments to expand their use of alternative fuel non-tactical vehicles to increase the use of hybrid and EV vehicles; requires the Department to submit a report on its greenhouse gas emissions for the last 10 years within 180 days of enactment; requires the Department to invest in research and development of advanced water harvesting technologies that would aid in addressing water security issues in areas impacted by drought due to climate change; expands the Department's ability to use installation resilience authorities to support climate resiliency projects at National Guard Facilities owned by the State; and requires the military services to assess their water use at installations in regions experiencing water scarcity, maximize use of landscaping practices that reduce water usage, and improve their water conservation.

The bill also includes provisions that address energy resiliency for military bases, including the following: requires a report on efforts taken to ensure fuel consumption, distribution, and logistics are being considered across the Department and that steps are being taken to reduce consumption of fossil fuels by 30 percent in 25 years to reduce the number of resupply convoys and oilers required in a contested environment; requires the Department of Defense to institute energy metering on critical military facilities to assess the energy requirements and plan to ensure resilient power sources for these facilities; establishes a pilot program to develop microgrids on military installations that integrate emergency diesel generators to demonstrate how microgrid emergency diesel generator backup power could create efficiencies and resiliency while reducing costs and emissions; promotes the use of on-site energy production to promote military installation energy resiliency and energy security; requires an assessment of the Department's installation and operational energy usage; re-establishes the Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund, which was eliminated in the budget request, and authorizes $65 million to demonstrate and field technologies that reduce fuel consumption and logistics; establishes an Operational Energy budget line to enhance transparency and congressional oversight of the Department's efforts to reduce fossil fuel usage and make conservation gains on operational platforms; and requires the Comptroller General to assess the Department's progress towards meeting net zero goals for installations to include an assessment of the cultural and legislative barriers to meeting these goals.

The bill continues efforts to address contamination associated with per- and polyfluorinated compounds around military installations, including the following provisions: requires the Secretary of Defense to notify all agricultural operations in an area where covered PFAS has been detected in groundwater that is suspected to originate from use of firefighting foam on a military installation; requires the Department of Defense to notify the congressional defense committees when there has been an uncontrolled release of PFAS-containing firefighting agent; establishes a prize that can be awarded by the Secretary of Defense for innovative research that results in a viable replacement agent for firefighting foam that does not contain PFAS; requires the Department of Defense to survey and report on non-firefighting agent technologies, such as hangar flooring and firefighting equipment, that will help facilitate the phase-out of PFAS containing firefighting agents; makes technical corrections to the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act to ensure that all National Guard installations are eligible for funding under the Defense Environmental Restoration Account for PFAS remediation; establishes an interagency coordinating body for PFAS research; prohibits the Department of Defense from procuring certain items containing PFAS, including cookware, carpets, and upholstery with stain-resistant coatings; authorizes the Department to work with private entities to spur research, development and testing of PFAS-free fire-fighting agents; requires the National Institute of Standard and Technology to study the safety of firefighting equipment with respect to protecting fire fighters from PFAS, and conduct research on improving the safety of this equipment; authorizes $90 million for research lines that support development of PFAS remediation and disposal technologies and firefighting agent replacement; and authorizes a total of $1.4 billion for environmental remediation and BRAC accounts which support a range of remediation activities, to include those related to PFAS, at current military installations, formerly utilized defense sites, and installations closed by BRAC.

The bill also builds on the Committee's previous legislative and oversight activities to ensure that military personnel and their families live in quality housing and that the Department and private housing partners are responsive to resident concerns. The bill does the following: requires a report on the oversight of known environmental hazards in government owned family housing, including overseas housing; requires the Department of Defense to report on the feasibility of standardizing privatized housing performance metrics to better allow the Department to track trends across the housing enterprise; for future and renegotiated privatized housing agreements, requires that funding for housing maintenance and recapitalization be prioritized ahead of housing management and other fees in the payment structure; updates minimum health and safety standards for all military base housing, requires transparency for private housing company contract performance fees, and requires a report on the status of other military housing reforms; increases transparency by requiring DOD to notify Congress of large expenditures coming from the family housing reinvestment accounts; repeals the provision in Title 10 that allowed the Department of Defense to place families in substandard housing units; requires the Secretary of Defense to implement Comptroller General recommendations for improvement of military family housing; and authorizes an additional $60 million for oversight and improvement of the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) program and to continue addressing environmental and maintenance issues in government- owned family housing.

Other important provisions that I am pleased are in the conference report include the following: establishes an independent commission to make binding recommendations to the Secretary of Defense for the modification or removal of all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense; amends the national emergency military construction authority (10 USC 2808) to set an annual limit of $100 million for the domestic use of the authority and $500 million for overseas projects, with an exception for medical projects that may be necessary to support response to a health emergency or pandemic; does not backfill military construction funds stolen for the border wall; makes technical corrections to the Paid Parental Leave benefit provided through the FY20 National Defense Authorization Act to ensure that Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, and certain other civilian employees inadvertently omitted from the legislation receive the paid parental leave benefit; establishes the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation and codifies in law the Department of Defense entity that runs the Joint Land Use Study, DOD Schools, Defense Community Infrastructure Program, and Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program to ensure stability and effective community engagement; authorizes $50 million for the Defense Community Infrastructure Program (DCIP) and clarifies congressional intent with respect to the implementation of the program; provides long overdue benefits to Vietnam-Era Veterans, adding hypothyroidism, bladder cancer and Parkinsonism to the Agent Orange Presumptive Conditions List; and prohibits retirement of the RQ-4 or U-2 aircraft until specific certifications or waivers have been provided to Congress.

I'm also pleased this NDAA includes a 3 percent pay raise for our troops and includes several provisions that establish a National Maritime Logistics Fleet to bolster America's maritime sector. This is accomplished by strengthening US-flagged vessel requirements for the transportation of military cargo and fuels, creating a Tanker Security Program to address the shortfall in US-flagged, US-crewed tankers, and requiring the Navy to initiate an affordable, domestic built sealift ship. Strengthening our maritime logistics will bolster our nation's commercial shipping industry and enhance our military's capabilities by improving the overarching defense industrial base that supports each branch of our armed services.

I am also pleased with the inclusion of the remaining provision of my bill, H.R. 2617, the Occupational and Environmental Transparency Health Act, to require DoD to integrate information from the Burn Pit Registry into servicemembers' Electronic Health Records to aid in the collection, documentation, and tracking of any exposures to Occupational Environmental Health (OEH) hazards. The legislative intent of H.R. 2617 has been fully accomplished through the NDAA as last year's FY20 NDAA required DoD to input any OEH hazards exposure into servicemembers' records while deployed so it is tracked throughout their career and into veteran status.

Overall, I am proud of the Readiness Subcommittee's contribution to this year's bill and would like to thank the Readiness staff, Brian Garrett, Jeanine Womble, Melanie Harris, Jay Vallario, John Muller, Dave Sienicki, and Sean Falvey, and my personal staff, Betsy Thompson, Marcus Jones, and Danusia Hubah, for their tireless work. Marcus and Danusia will be departing the Hill after next week, and I would like to personally thank them for their hard work and sharing their expertise with us this past year. Both Marcus and Danusia have been invaluable members of my staff and we will miss them dearly.

This bill helps advance our military's near-term readiness goals and drives the Department to plan for and take action against long-term threats. The conference report also authorizes funding that will strengthen DOD and the country's ability to respond to potential COVID- 19 resurgence and other infectious diseases in the future. With that, I urge my colleagues to support the FY21 NDAA.

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