WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) issued the following statement today regarding the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) announced yesterday that Senate and House Conferees had reached an agreement.  The conference report will now come before the full Senate and House for a vote on final passage.

"As a Senate conferee," Akaka said, "I was pleased that we were able to complete this conference report which addressed many complex issues in order to authorize funding for the Department of Defense.  Included in the conference report were a number of provisions important to the nation and to the state of Hawaii which I worked to ensure were included.  I am especially pleased that provisions from both the Senate and House versions of the Wounded Warrior Act were included in the bill as a comprehensive package of reforms."

Some of the key Wounded Warrior provisions in the bill include:

• requiring DoD and VA to jointly develop a comprehensive policy on veteran health care, management, and the transition of wounded warriors;
• requiring DoD to develop a comprehensive plan and authorizing Centers of Excellence in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of traumatic brain injury and PTSD;
• requiring DoD to use VA presumption of sound condition standard in establishing eligibility of service members for disability retirement;
• requiring DoD to use VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities in determining servicemembers' disabilities.

The conference report also contains provisions Senator Akaka strongly advocated through his positions as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, as well as Chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management.  This includes the incorporation of the Acquisition Improvement and Accountability Act of 2007 as well as language that strengthens whistleblower protections for employees who report on waste, fraud, and abuse of DoD contracts.  This legislation:

• repeals the authority of DoD to establish a new labor relations system and restores collective bargaining and appeals rights. DoD will be allowed to develop and implement a new pay-for-performance system, but only if the system is implemented in a manner that is consistent with existing labor relations requirements;
• tightens the rules for competition between federal employees and private contractors to ensure that federal employees are given fair consideration for work to be performed for DoD;
• establishes a full-time position of Deputy Chief Management Officer with the rank of an Under Secretary.

Senator Akaka also noted, as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management: "I was pleased to work to ensure that the readiness needs of our military were met including providing $220.4 billion to meet the services' operation and maintenance requirements to support combat operations, improve readiness of deploying and non-deployed forces, and support Army and Marine Corps plans to increase FY08 end strengths and provide an additional $16 million to protect and enhance military training ranges as well as creating buffer zones around military installations."  Senator Akaka was instrumental in securing an additional $365 million investment above the military construction budget to repair, replace, and modernize DoD facilities and improve quality of life for servicemembers and their families.

"I am pleased to announce that my amendment to require a report on the plans of the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs that would provide Congress with a description of the current efforts to maintain and preserve the Monument at the Tomb of the Unknowns and an assessment of the feasibility and advisability of repairing rather then replacing it was kept in the conference report," said Akaka, Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. 

"I am also pleased that the conference report includes the provision that I introduced which would require the Department of Defense to conduct a report on the Brown Tree Snake, an invasive species, found in significant numbers on military installations and other areas on Guam.  The brown tree snake poses a serious potential danger to the environment and ecology of Hawaii," Akaka said.

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