Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. BACON. Mr. Chair, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for putting this great legislation together and navigating the ship to a good spot. I appreciate the opportunity to serve on those two committees.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 8070, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025. The 2025 NDAA prioritizes the servicemembers and military families who dedicate their lives to protecting and defending the United States by making their quality of life the cornerstone of this legislation.

The bipartisan bill includes a targeted 19.5 percent pay raise for the junior enlisted, improves the basic needs allowance and housing allowance, supports military spouse employment, and makes necessary investments in military housing, childcare, and schools.

I am extremely proud of the hard work and oversight conducted by the bipartisan Quality of Life Panel that I had the honor of chairing this past year to address all of these critical issues impacting our servicemembers. By voting for this bill, each of us has the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the All-Volunteer Force, the foundation of America's military strength.

In addition to supporting servicemembers and families, this year's NDAA also makes strides in bolstering the United States' offensive and defensive posture in cyberspace. It promotes innovation. It makes investments in critical technology areas, like biotechnology, quantum, and artificial intelligence, and secures our sensitive military research from adversarial interference.

This year's NDAA also advances critical partnerships between our universities, military services, and combatant commands, including the United States Strategic Command and the University of Nebraska, in order to develop the next generation of military technologies.

These partnerships are critical to developing the scientific and technological workforce and talent pipelines needed to secure the United States' technological edge now and in the future.

We have a strong NDAA. It is a bipartisan bill that supports our servicemembers, it modernizes our fighting force, and ensures U.S. Forces are well-equipped to fight and win from competition to conflict.

Mr. Chair, I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

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