Last week the House passed a $577.1 billion dollar Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act for the 53rd straight year. This is one of the few bills that Congress still agrees to pass on an annual basis. It passed the House with votes from both Republicans and Democrats, 300-119. It is expected to do the same in the Senate. One of the main objections stated by many members of Congress who voted against the bill was that it did not require Congress to vote on an authorization of military force against the Islamic State, or ISIS, before allocating funds to support the war effort there.
While we did not get everything we wanted, overall it could have been much, much worse. The active duty will not get a 1.8% pay raise as we had advocated, and TRICARE pharmacy co-pays will go up $3. Here are the details, as well as some of the other key provisions in the House version of the NDAA:
- It contains a 1.0% pay raise for active duty military
- Authorizes a $3.00 increase in pharmacy copays for non-active duty TRICARE beneficiaries who fill prescriptions outside of military treatment facilities; requires that non-formulary prescriptions be available through the national mail-order program; and requires that non-generic prescription maintenance medications be refilled through military treatment facility pharmacies or the national mail-order pharmacy program in section 702
- There were several new sexual assault provisions contained in sections 531-547 of the act (but none of them took responsibility for prosecuting military sexual assaults out of the chain of command)
- It enhances the transition assistance program by providing information to service members and veterans during transition assistance programs regarding use of post-9/11 educational assistance and federal financial aid in sections 551-558
- Impact Aid, a program run through the Department of Education and supplemented by the Department of Defense to make up for lost tax revenue for local schools systems that serve large numbers of military school children, was extended for one year at $25M to local educational agencies impacted by the enrollment of dependent children of military members and DOD civilian employees & $5M for schools with large numbers of children of military members and DOD civilian employees with severe disabilities in sections 562-563
- It bars any pay raise for General Officers and Flag Officers in Section 601
- BAH was modified by extending the authority to provide temporary increases in the rate of BAH in areas impacted by natural disasters or experiencing a sudden influx of personnel section 604
- The COLA -1% provision for working-age military retirees contained in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 was pushed back so that service members who join before 1 Jan 16 are grandfathered in to the existing retirement system in section 623
- The per fiscal year calculation for reserve retirement was changed so that 90 days of active duty time in any two continuous fiscal years will qualify as a good year for early reserve retirement, but only if that time occurs between FY 2015 to FY 2016 and beyond – we still have to fix the problem for previous years, in section 625
- It authorizes the Secretary of Defense to purchase any commercial item, including brand-name and generic items, for resale in, at, or by commissary stores without using full and open competition procurement procedures; also requires the Secretary of Defense to conduct a review of management, food, and pricing options for the defense commissary system in sections 631 & 634, respectively
- DOD is also prevented from using any appropriated funds to close any commissaries
- It requires a report on status of reductions to TRICARE prime service areas in section 723
- The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs was folded into the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and & Readiness in section 902
- A national commission to study the future of the Army will take place (spelled out in Title XVII)
- A new Base Realignment and Closing commission, or BRAC, was prohibited in section 2711
And a new burn pit report to consider the prohibition of disposal of waste in burn pits is required under section 313.