2009 Defense Authorization
On May 22, 2008, the House passed the fiscal year 2009 Defense Authorization bill, H.R. 5658. This measure will provide the necessary resources and authorities to quickly and efficiently reverse declining trends in military readiness, and will also provide our service members in harm’s way with the best gear and force protection possible. Under the bill, our troops will get better health care, better pay, and the benefits they have earned. Below are highlights of the measure.
Restoring Our Nation’s Military Readiness
Provide Needed Military Equipment and Training for Our Troops
- Authorizes $8.6 billion to address the Army’s equipment reset requirements in FY 2009, and $1.8 billion to address the equipment reset needs of the Marine Corps. This will enable the two services to address their critical shortfalls of equipment.
- Authorizes nearly $2 billion for unfunded readiness initiatives requested by the services but not included in the President’s budget request, including filling shortages in our pre-positioned equipment stockpiles, expanded training opportunities for the Army, and needed maintenance for Army aircraft.
Build up the Strained National Guard and Reserve
- Authorizes an additional $800 million, beyond the President’s request, for the procurement of critical, high-priority equipment for the National Guard and Reserve. The funding is specifically provided to address critical unfunded equipment shortfalls of the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.
Expand the Number of Troops to Meet Our Commitments and Reduce Strain
- Continues to increase the size of the active-duty Army and Marine Corps. For FY 2009, the bill provides that the Army will grow by 7,000 soldiers to 532,400, and the Marine Corps’ ranks will grow by 5,000 to 194,000.
Restore Military Barracks
- Authorizes an additional $650 million to improve the quality of our military barracks, which are in a severe state of dilapidation around the U.S. causing significant quality of life issues for our soldiers at multiple installations. Of the $650 million, $500 million will go to the Army. Unfortunately, the President failed to request sufficient funding for this purpose.
Protecting Our Troops in Harm’s Way
Ensure Our Troops in Harm’s Way Have the Protective Equipment They Need
- Authorizes $2.6 billion to procure, sustain, transport, and field Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles for our troops overseas. Additionally, DOD is required to report on the current status of the MRAP program and any future plans to field enough vehicles for training.
- Authorizes $947 million for Up-Armored Humvees.
- Authorizes $783 million for the continued procurement and enhancement of personal body armor.
- Directs DOD to establish an executive agent for personal body armor and create a specific budget line item for body armor and other personnel protection equipment. Also requires DOD to report on the current status of the body armor industrial base and the strategic plan for sustaining it over time.
- Directs the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) to take the lead in efforts to characterize the signatures of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in order to develop better detection methods.
Supporting Our Troops and Their Families
Give the Military a Pay Raise
- Provides all service members a pay raise of 3.9 percent -- 0.5 percent more than the President’s budget request.
- Extends the authority for the Defense Department to offer bonuses and incentive pay.
Improve Health Care for Our Troops & Military Retirees
- Preserves health benefits by rejecting the increased premiums and co-pays in TRICARE and TRICARE retail pharmacy program for service members and retirees, which were proposed by the President. This will save beneficiaries $1.2 billion in health care costs.
- Establishes a series of Preventive Health Care Projects that focus on reducing the need for care, rather than the amount of care available or the number of people who have coverage. Preventive care initiatives include:
- Providing an allowance for individuals who seek preventive health services.
- Waiving co-payments for preventive services for all TRICARE beneficiaries.
- Providing a smoking cessation program, including classes and nicotine replacement.
- Establishes a Hearing Loss Center of Excellance.
- Establishes a DOD School of Nursing, to address the critical nursing shortage in our military services.
Improve Family Support for Military Families
- Authorizes $3.2 billion to support and expand quality housing for all service members and their families.
- Authorizes an additional $15 million, beyond the President’s request, to expand family support programs – at a time of great stress for military families.
- Authorizes $50 million to help local educational agencies providing support to our military children, with an additional $15 million for those heavily impacted by force structure changes.
- Authorizes DOD to pay a portion of a second family separation allowance when both military parents are deployed simultaneously.
- Authorizes tuition assistance and training opportunities for military spouses seeking careers that can be maintained as they move from station to station.
Expand Suicide Prevention
- Takes steps to expand suicide prevention in the Armed Forces, including requiring a study of providing second opinions to potentially suicidal service members in a combat theater.
Miscellaneous
- Establishes a Career Intermission Pilot Program, which provides greater flexibility for officer and enlisted personnel management by allowing a service member to be released from active duty for a maximum of three years to focus on professional goals outside the military.
- Permanently prohibits service members from being charged for meals at military treatment facilities while undergoing medical recuperation or therapy.
Focusing on the War in Afghanistan
Command and Control Structure
- Includes a sense of Congress that the command and control structure for military forces operating in Afghanistan should be modified to better coordinate military operations and achieve unity of command whenever possible.
- Requires DOD to submit a report on the command and control structure that assesses options for improvement, including the establishment of a 3-star U.S. headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Training and Equipping the Afghan National Security Forces
- Requires the Administration to take steps to address inadequacies in the training and equipping of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), including a shortage of trainers and mentors for the ANSF.
Performance Monitoring System for PRTs in Afghanistan
- Requires the President to develop and implement a performance monitoring system for U.S.-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan. The system should include comprehensive performance indicators and measures of progress, as well as performance standards and progress goals, with a timetable for achieving those goals.
Separate Afghanistan Budget Display
- For greater transparency and accountability, requires the Administration to submit separate budget requests for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- This recommendation from the Afghanistan Study Group will enable Congress to conduct the necessary level of oversight of funding for Afghanistan.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
- Calls upon the President to appoint a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, as required by the FY 2008 Defense Authorization (PL 110-181).
Iraq Policy Provisions
- Ties amounts for reconstruction under the Commanders Emergency Response Fund (CERP) in Iraq to Iraqi contributions. Specifically, for every $1 provided by the Iraqis for the Iraqi CERP Fund, $2 may be spent from the U.S. CERP Fund.
- Requires DOD to submit a report on how the increasing income of the Iraqi Government is being included in calculating the CERP funding request.
- Authorizes $1 billion, half of the President’s request, for training and support of the Iraqi Security Forces and prohibits any of those funds from being used on infrastructure.
- Prohibits the establishment of permanent bases in Iraq and prohibits U.S. control of Iraqi oil revenues.
- Requires the Bush Administration to report to Congress on details of any Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) that exist or are signed between the U.S. and Iraq and how such agreements protect U.S. service members and affect U.S. operations in Iraq.
- Requires a strategy to ensure that U.S.-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) are supporting the strategic goals of the coalition and to establish performance standards for the PRTs.
- Requires DOD to clearly break out its Iraq-related budget items in each future budget request.
Contractor Reform and Improving Accountability
Reforming and Improving the DOD Acquisition Process
- Implements several recommendations of the Gansler Commission to reform and improve the DOD acquisition process, including
- Provides an enhanced military career path in acquisition.
- Provides expedited hiring authority for the acquisition workforce.
- Lifts the premium pay cap for civilians deploying to theater.
Preventing Conflicts of Interest
- Due to concerns that contractor employees who work side-by-side with government employees are not subject to the same conflict of interest provisions, the bill requires DOD to develop a policy to prevent personal conflicts of interest in defense contracts.
Defining “Inherently Governmental Function”
- Requires the development of a single definition of an “inherently governmental function” to be applied government-wide to help determine which jobs should only be performed by government personnel.
Other Provisions, Including Nuclear Threat Reduction and Interagency Coordination
The bill includes numerous other provisions. Only a couple of these other provisions are highlighted below.
Keep Nuclear Weapons Out of the Hands of Terrorists
- Authorizes $445 million, an increase of $31 million, to strengthen and expand the Department of Defense’s Counter-Threat Reduction nonproliferation program (the “Nunn-Lugar” program), which is targeted at securing nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union.
- Authorizes $1.5 billion, an increase of $235 million, to strengthen and expand the nuclear nonproliferation programs of the Energy Department’s NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration), including such programs as the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The committee states that it believes there are additional opportunities for DOE nonproliferation programs to address the wide variety of global threats arising from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Improving Interagency Coordination
- Requires a report on efforts to integrate civilian personnel into military planning; to achieve greater interagency participation in the development of military plans; and to include lessons learned from the PRTS in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Requires a development of a strategy to establish measures of effectiveness and performance for PRTS in Iraq, as well as a strategy to do so in Afghanistan.
- Requires an extensive report on how DOD will recruit and reward the right civilian and military personnel, how it will ensure that they are properly trained and integrated, and how it will build a permanent group of these personnel who can be called on in the future.