Washington, D.C. - With the strong support of Senator Susan Collins, the U.S. Senate has passed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes several provisions that are important to service members in Maine and the Maine economy.
The bill authorizes an additional $100 million toward a tenth ship in the DDG-51 multi-year procurement. The Navy has said that this ship would be built at Bath Iron Works provided the upcoming defense appropriations bill also includes the funding which will help fill a shortfall in funding caused by last year's sequestration.
In addition, the bill includes an important amendment, authored by Senator Collins at the request of the Navy, that will allow for the settlement of the decades-old A-12 aircraft lawsuit and keep work going on the third DDG-1000 steel deckhouse, steel hangar, and aft VLS modules being built at Bath Iron Works (BIW). The settlement allows the Navy to receive $400 million worth of needed military hardware at no cost, including a $200 million credit for the third DDG-1000 deckhouse that will protect hundreds of jobs at BIW. The settlement creates a favorable outcome for the Pentagon, the defense industry, and, most important, our nation's taxpayers.
"The National Defense Authorization Act, realized through a bipartisan and bicameral effort, illustrates the importance that Congress places on our nation's shipbuilding programs, which support the Navy in meeting its essential national security commitments around the globe," said Senator Collins, who is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. "The funding for the tenth DDG-51 destroyer that will be built right here in Maine by the outstanding men and women at Bath Iron Works has been authorized, and I will continue to work to see that the money is actually appropriated."
The bill also authorizes $11.5 million to fund an effort to consolidate the shipyard structural shops at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery more quickly than previously planned. The project, originally slated for fiscal year 2015, was included in the President's budget request this year in conjunction with the delivery to Congress of a report from the Navy on improving the infrastructure and modernizing the Navy's four public shipyards. Senators Collins requested the Navy report on the infrastructure needs of its four shipyards in the FY12 NDAA. This first project of the new investment strategy was included in the President's FY2014 budget proposal, even as the Department of Defense has delayed or cancelled $4.1 billion in military construction projects during the next five budget years.
"The infrastructure of our public naval shipyards is woefully out of date compared to our other naval facilities," Senator Collins said. "Accelerating the consolidation and modernization of the shipyard structural shops is critical to improving the operational efficiency at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard."
The FY 2014 defense authorization bill also includes funding for many other investments in Maine, such as $6 billion for Joint Strike Fighter aircraft procurement. Engine parts of this aircraft are manufactured at Pratt & Whitney in North Berwick.
The bill would also prohibit DoD from initiating another round Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), protecting Maine's military installations, such as Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from uncertainty.
Importantly, the bill includes many bipartisan provisions authored by Senator Collins, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Congressman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (D-MA), to reduce the instances of sexual assault in the military, improve the Department of Defense's response to these terrible crimes, and increase the confidence in the military justice system that survivors need to come forward when such crimes have taken place. These provisions originated in two bills introduced by Senator Collins and others known as the Coast Guard STRONG Act and the Better Enforcement for Sexual Assault Free Environments (BE SAFE) Act.
The Coast Guard STRONG Act would ensure that sexual assault survivors in the United States Coast Guard are able to request a transfer away from the geographic location of his or her assailant expedited. These important protections have already been enacted for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.
The provisions of the BE SAFE Act included in the FY 2014 NDAA include:
The bill also modifies the Article 32 process to focus on probable cause and prevent abusive questioning of sexual assault survivors in a pre-trial setting, which reflects another provision supported by Senator Collins. In November, Senator Collins joined Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) in leading a bipartisan group of Senate women speaking out on the Senate floor regarding their support for the historic reforms included in the FY 2014 NDAA and the importance of continuing these efforts in the future. A video clip of Senator Collins' remarks may be viewed here.
The bill will now head to the White House for the President's signature with more than 30 provisions combatting sexual assault in the military.
For our nation's service members, the bill prohibits Administration proposals to establish or increase health care fees, deductibles, and copayments primarily affecting working-age military retirees and their families.
Leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, in their Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the bill, included language supporting other initiatives led by Senator Collins. First, the bill requires the Department of Defense(DoD) to seek sources of domestic footwear in order to demonstrate that domestic athletic footwear meet the requirement for new recruits in the military. In May, Senator Collins and Senator Angus King authored a bill that would require DoD to treat athletic footwear like every other uniform item, including boots, and ensure that such items are bought from American manufacturers, such as New Balance, which manufactures some of its products at factories in Norridgewock, Skowhegan, and Norway, Maine.
The report accompanying the defense authorization bill also emphasized the importance of establishing a drug take-back program in the Department of Defense to help combat the troubling rise of suicide among our nation's troops.
"I have long called on the DEA to ensure that our nation's troops and veterans, who do not routinely use retail pharmacies, have a safe and easy way of disposing of unwanted prescription drugs," said Senator Collins. "I am pleased that the Armed Services Committees have included such a strong message in their Joint Explanatory Statement, which echoes my persistent work on this issue. It is clear that Congress expects DoD to have the authority to conduct a drug take-back program at its medical facilities, and I urge the DEA to promptly finalize its rule to reflect this expectation, which will help to avoid future tragic instances of service member suicide."