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Washington, DC -- Today, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) voted to pass the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which makes key investments to strengthen national security and support U.S. servicemembers and their families.

“This year's bipartisan defense authorization bill invests in our servicemembers who are the core of our national security,” said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. “We're delivering important new support systems for military families, long-overdue reforms to the military justice system to stand with survivors of sexual assault, and improved health care and mental health services for those who are serving our country. The investments we're making in technological innovation and strategic global partnerships will help position us well to take on the security challenges of today's world.”

Highlights of the bipartisan legislation include:

• Providing a pay raise for members of the military: supports a 2.7 percent increase in military basic pay.
• Meeting our responsibility to our servicemembers and their families: strengthens parental leave for caregiving servicemembers, expands access to child care, improves financial security of low-income military members and those with families members living with a disability, protects military communities from PFAS chemicals and strengthens access to health care, including mental health care and reproductive care.
• Protecting our national security: combats our adversaries with new tools to deter aggression from Russia and China and to address transnational threats including terrorism, and supports our allies.
• Taking historic action to combat sexual assault in the military: includes reforms such as removing the Commander from key decisions related to sexual assault and related crimes, creating an Office of the Special Trial Counsel within each service, criminalizing sexual harassment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and improving fairness and transparency across the system.
• Modernizing our defenses: with robust investments in defense-wide R&D, cybersecurity and AI, so that we can fortify our military’s technological advantage.  This NDAA also ensures that our military readiness takes into account the challenges of energy resiliency and the climate crisis.
• Honoring our values: builds on Congress’s bipartisan action in passing Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) legislation to provide for the relocation of our Afghan allies and partners, by requiring the Secretary of Defense to continue to provide in-depth reports and briefings to Congress on the situation in Afghanistan.

A full summary of the NDAA provided by the House Armed Services Committee can be found here.

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