May 23, 2024

Rep. Sara Jacobs Secures Over 3 Dozen Priorities in FY25 NDAA

After securing more than three dozen priorities to improve military child care and housing, strengthen access to reproductive health care, increase the guardrails on the use of automated weapon systems, and better align defense policies with foreign policy goals, Rep. Sara Jacobs (CA-51) voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) through the House Armed Service Committee.

Rep. Sara Jacobs (CA-51): “We ask so much of our service members and military families – knowing they’ll be away from their home and loved ones, potentially be in danger, and have to sacrifice certain freedoms. In return, they’ve earned and deserve the ability to live with dignity. That’s why I’m so proud to have secured key provisions through my role on the Quality of Life Panel to increase military pay and benefits, improve access to child care, expand access to and quality of military housing, and much more. Our service members and their dependents also shouldn’t have to choose between serving their country and building a family. So I’m proud that I secured a historic, life-changing expansion of TRICARE to cover IVF, fertility medication, and more. This is just the start of living up to the promises made to our military community.

“As the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, I’m focused on ensuring that our engagement – including our military operations – on the continent are positive, mutually beneficial, and reflect our values. That’s why I’m proud that I secured significant amendments to support a whole-of-government approach to addressing conflict, prevent civilian harm, promote human rights, and ensure oversight and transparency of our military operations in Africa and around the world. 

“We also need to ensure that our values are reflected in our military’s use and development of lethal autonomous weapons, including nuclear weapons. That’s why I’m proud I secured language to require a “human in the loop” to use nuclear weapons and an amendment to create more transparency on the U.S. approval process for developing and deploying lethal autonomous weapons. I will continue working to ensure these provisions are included in the final version of the NDAA so we are living up to our values in all aspects of our defense policies.”

Rep. Sara Jacobs Secured the Following Provisions:

Raising Military Pay and Compensation:

  • Increases the Basic Allowance for Housing to cover 100% of the calculated rate for the military housing area (MHA) 
  • Increases junior enlisted service member pay for E1s to E4s by 12% – the largest increase ever – and increases the Regular Military Compensation (RMC) benchmarks for enlisted and officer pay to the 80th percentile and the 75th percentile respectively, of comparable civilian compensation
  • Increases the Basic Needs Allowance to 200% of Federal Poverty Guidelines
  • Expands the Basic Allowance for Housing Authority for sailors on sea duty who serve in a pay grade below E-4 and whose ship remains in port for an extended period – an expansion of Rep. Sara Jacobs’ FY2024 NDAA provision

Improving Military Child Care:

  • Standardizes benefits for child care staff across the services to cover 100% of child care fees for the first child of staff enrolled in a Department of Defense Child Development Program to incentivize and retain child care personnel
  • Eliminates child care fee assistance wait lists by fully funding child care fee assistance programs 
  • Requires the GAO to identify barriers to accessing military child care fee assistance and opportunities to support community child care providers to participate in the military child care fee assistance program. 
  • Builds upon a provision in the Military Quality of Life bill by redesigning and modernizing DOD's child development program staffing and compensation model to strengthen staff retention and ensure military child care facilities are operating at full capacity 

Fighting for San Diego Priorities

  • Requires a report on the effects of cross-border pollution in the Tijuana River Valley and the Pacific Ocean on Naval operations. 
  • Ensures oceanographic research vessels are excluded from certain sourcing requirements to allow for uninterrupted work at academic institutions including the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Directs the Secretary of Defense to submit a report outlining the financial literacy training and direct deposit process for new recruits to protect their financial security.

Strengthening Access to Reproductive Health Care

  • Establishes a pilot program on cryopreservation to reimburse active duty service members for the cost of freezing, shipping, and storing their gametes
  • Eliminates co-pays on contraception for all TRICARE beneficiaries so all service members and their dependents can exercise their freedom to decide if, when, or how to become a parent, without cost-sharing
  • Expands TRICARE to cover assisted reproductive technology, including IVF, for all active duty service members and their dependents

Expanding Access to and Quality of Military Housing:

  • Fully funds the Facilities Sustainment Restoration and Modernization (FSRM) requirements for Unaccompanied Housing 
  • Increases transparency of FSRM Funding to include tracking and providing detailed accounting of how FSRM funds are allocated at the installation level
  • Reports on life cycle costs for Unaccompanied Housing vs. Basic Allowance for Housing
  • Explores alternative funding mechanisms to facilitate privatized Unaccompanied Housing or other Unaccompanied Housing solutions to help validate whether new authorities or payment models can overcome the usual obstacles to UH privatization
  • Reports on future Unaccompanied Housing privatization projects to detail lessons learned from previous privatized UH agreements, prospective plans for future privatized UH projects, analyze factors associated with the privatization of UH, and examine potential statutory, policy, or budgetary barriers in expanding privatized UH availability. 
  • Studies additional UH oversight staff to evaluate the shortage of military personnel housing needs and proposed solutions.
  • Limits funds for travel by the Office of Secretary of Defense until the Secretary implements the military housing complaint database required under current law to ensure service members and their families are able to voice their housing concerns.
  • Studies the feasibility of building multi-unit family housing constructions that include a child care center – in line with bipartisan legislation recently introduced by Reps. Sara Jacobs and Jen Kiggans

Strengthening Military Spousal Support

  • Expands child care eligibility to military spouses seeking employment from 90 days to 180 days

Honoring LGBTQ+ Veterans

  • Requires a briefing and data on the Pentagon’s progress reviewing cases of veterans denied honorable discharges under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Addressing Civilian Harm, Preventing Conflict, and Improving Security Assistance

  • Requires a review of all U.S. military operations to ensure greater transparency 
  • Requires a briefing on the progress toward full operational capability and the staffing and organization of the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and Progress, 
  • Encourages continued contributions to the Global Fragility Act (GFA) in fiscal year 2025 to include host country engagements and staffing in Washington, D.C. as well as a briefing on planned funding levels for GFA implementation in fiscal year 2025
  • Directs a report from the Secretary of Defense on lessons learned from the coup in Niger regarding U.S. assets and troops in the country, a risk assessment of basing options – including drone operations – in the Coastal West African region under consideration
  • Requires a briefing on challenges with using ex gratia authority and other potential opportunities to provide amends to civilians affected by military operations
  • Directs a report from the Secretary of Defense on past civilian harm assessments that are being re-opened pursuant to Department of Defense policy
  • Extends the annual report on civilian casualties in connection with U.S. military operations for another 5 years 
  • Requires a plan on increasing funds for the assessment, monitoring, and evaluation of security cooperation programs
  • Requires a report on the implementation of the US Strategy to Counter Corruption Objective 5.5, improving security assistance and integrating corruption considerations into military planning, analysis, and operations

Upholding Human Rights in Africa

  • Requires a feasibility study on establishing a Human Rights Office within U.S. Africa Command
  • Directs the Secretary of Defense to provide a briefing about the Department’s plan to implement the 21st Century Partnership for African Security initiative to incentivize African military partners to undertake security sector reforms
  • Directs a report from the Secretary of Defense on the effectiveness of U.S. civilian harm training of Nigerian armed forces

Strengthens Guardrails and Ensures Transparency on the Use and Development of Autonomous Weapons

  • Directs the President to provide an annual report to Congress on the approval and deployment of lethal autonomous weapon systems
  • Requires a “human in the loop” for the employment of nuclear weapons

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