The House and Senate armed services committees advanced markups of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act last week, giving a first look at where defense dollars might go next year.
In all, the budget calls for total spending of $886.3 billion on military and defense-related discretionary programs, which matches President Joe Biden’s proposal. While the House and Senate committees’ drafts are not identical, they are largely the same.
On the table is a 5.2% pay increase for service members and Department of Defense civilians, 10 new warships, a study on the limited duty process, and a housing allowance for junior enlisted service members attached to ships stuck in the yard.
If it becomes law, the proposed 5.2% pay increase for service members would be the largest in more than 20 years. Last year, the defense spending bill covered a 4.6% pay increase.
Language in the legislation funnels a chunk of funding toward tackling quality of life issues for service members by increasing oversight of the DoD’s limited duty process. Also authorized is a housing allowance for junior enlisted service members without dependents, rather than requiring them to live aboard ships during maintenance periods in shipyards.
Also included in both versions are requirements for the DoD or the Department of the Navy to provide Congress with a report on the limited duty process to identify ways to improve support and mental-health resources.
Those provisions were included in response to the suicides of seven Hampton Roads-based sailors last year.
“The rising number of sailors who continue to die by suicide should make it abundantly clear for anyone to see that we must do better for those serving our great nation,” said Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican from Virginia Beach and member of the House Armed Services Committee.
The USS George Washington came under scrutiny after three sailors died by suicide within a week last year while the carrier was undergoing an extended overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding. While the Navy found “life stressors” contributed to their deaths, at least one sailor reportedly slept in his vehicle to escape the noisy ship that was periodically without hot water or power.
Less than eight months later, the Norfolk-based Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center reported the suicides of four sailors on limited duty within 28 days. A separate investigation noted the medical separation process took far longer than intended for three of the four sailors. The process is intended to take 230 days from start to finish, but the MARMC investigation found the process averages 360.
“Just keeping people guessing about what their future holds is not healthy, it’s especially not good for anyone’s mental health,” Kiggans told The Virginian-Pilot.
Both versions of the draft also seek to authorize expanding the fleet and rejects the Navy’s proposal to decommission one Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser and three Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships early.
New vessels would potentially include two Virginia-class submarines, one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Constellation-class two frigates, a John Lewis-class fleet oiler, one San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, and one submarine tender.
Sen. Tim Kaine, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee seapower subcommittee, described the Navy’s legal requirement to maintain 31 deployable amphibious ships as a “battle” between the panel, the White House and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During Friday’s media availability, Kaine said the Navy’s current 30-year shipbuilding plan does not achieve that mandate.
“So when the budget comes over and there’s no path to 31 and you ask the question why? You just told us you need them,” said Kaine, a Democrat. “The answer is because the [Office of Management and Budget] and the White House and the SECDEF’s office decided that didn’t make the cut. What we have done in the bill is ordered them to give us a shipbuilding plan that shows how they get to 31.”
If passed, the Navy will have two months to submit a new plan to Congress that shows the service maintaining the 31 amphibious ship floor.
Defense dollars could also bring new construction to Hampton Roads. Included in both drafts are millions for:
- Maritime Surveillance System Facility at Dam Neck Annex
- Child development centers at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story and Naval Station Norfolk
- MQ-25 facilities and a submarine pier at Naval Station Norfolk
- Weapons magazines at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown
- Drydock Saltwater System at Norfolk Naval Shipyard
- Special Operations Forces Seal Delivery Vehicle Team 2 Operations Support Facility at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story
- Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar support facilities at Dam Neck
The markups will now go to the House and Senate floors before the two must be reconciled as one bill and voted on. From there, it will go to the president’s desk.
“I am reminded of a Rolling Stones song whose lyrics go ‘you can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.’ I remain committed to delivering our national security, mandated as an enumerated legislative authority in the constitution,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st District, member of the House Armed Services Committee during the defense spending hearing. “But I also think it is time for us to work smarter, discuss what we want and deliver what we need.”
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