National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Floor Speech

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Mr. FALLON. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Rogers for his dedication. He is a great American truly, and it has been an honor to serve under him. I also thank Ranking Member Smith for his good-faith efforts to do everything he can to protect our country. He is truly a credit, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for his work on this bill.

The fiscal year 2027 NDAA contains substantial wins for servicemembers and their families and continues the committee's tradition of improving the quality of life of servicemembers and their families by authorizing a substantial pay raise, expanding childcare, reauthorizing special pays and bonuses, a significant overhaul of the military health system, and multiple military justice reforms. The bill also expands access to healthcare, increases dental coverage for our children and members of the Guard and Reserve, prevents the elimination of uniformed doctors, and increases access to specialty care.

Additionally, this bill invests in our defense industrial base by completely restructuring the pay and personnel policies for our wage- grade employees in order to increase wages and reward our hardest workers with quicker promotions and more substantial bonuses.

The fiscal year 2027 NDAA includes essential reforms that we all know are critical to refocus our military on warfighting and lethality by requiring all personnel actions to be based on individual merit and demonstrated performance, rather than race, ethnicity, or sex, and preventing the weaponization of administrative investigations.

Mr. Chairman, I strongly urge the passage of the fiscal year 2027 NDAA so we can deliver on our promises to our servicemembers and their families.

I personally wish to thank from my personal office: Andrew Bond and Jay Knoxville, and also our professional staff here: Dave Giachetti, Hannah Kaufman, Ali Evers, Ellie Bender, Anna Reed and from the minority staff: Ilka Regino and Michaela Reardon for their work on this bill. They have all been really great to work with, and I think we had a wonderful year. I also thank again the leadership from the chairman and the ranking member.

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