Congresswoman Stansbury Votes to Deliver Wins for New Mexico’s Service Members, Bases, and Sustainability in Defense Spending Bill

WASHINGTON—Last night, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) voted to deliver critical funding for Kirtland Air Force Base and New Mexico’s economy, the well-being of our military service members and their families, and the sustainability of military installations. The defense bill now heads to the Senate before final passage and the President’s desk.

The National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA) provides service members with a 2.7% pay raise and creates a new allowance to address food, housing, and other basic needs for service members and their families.

The bill also implements reforms to prevent and protect service members from sexual assault and sexual harassment by removing commanders from decisions to prosecute. These provisions in the bill are derived from the Vanessa Guillén Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act of 2021, the first bill Rep. Stansbury signed on to as a cosponsor after taking office in June this year.

“Last week I visited Kirtland Air Force Base and saw NDAA funding in action. Tonight, we voted to increase military pay, address vital needs of our service members and their families, and fund programs important to our economy and national security,” said Rep. Stansbury. “New Mexicans have a long and proud history of answering the call to serve, and I am proud to be able to represent our communities and to help deliver key funding for our bases and National Labs.”

Key Provisions of the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act include:

Investments in New Mexico’s Military Installations

Sandia National Laboratories

• Invests over $13.8 million in new project funding and over $4.5 million in environmental cleanup .

Kirtland Air Force Base

• Invests $8.6 million in funding to construct a replacement for an environmental health facility.
• Invests over $5.2 million to establish a new dedicated facility for the Space Rapid Capabilities Office.
• Invests $5.6 million to construct a new security gate on Wyoming Blvd.

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

• Directs the Secretary of the Air Force to carry out an assessment of Space Force capabilities specific to space access and space operations.  

Vital quality-of-life improvements for New Mexico servicemembers and their families

• Raises military basic pay by 2.7%.
• Invests in a first-of-its-kind basic needs allowance for military families
• Improves health care, including mental health care and suicide prevention.
• Increases bereavement and parental leave for service members.
• Increases funding for school districts educating students from military families, including funding that will directly benefit Albuquerque Public Schools and the Bernalillo Municipal School District.

Sustainability and Climate Resilience Investments

• Requires the Department of Defense to ensure that 10 percent of its major military installations achieve energy, water, and waste net-zero by 2035.
• Requires the Department of Defense to incorporate consideration of the risks of extreme weather into certain existing Department of Defense strategies and planning documents.
• Requires the Department to institute a process for ensuring accurate and effective analytical tools are used to project life-cycle costs and performance potential of energy resilience measures.
• Requires the Department of Defense to establish a demonstration initiative focused on the development of long duration energy storage technologies.  
• Requires the Secretary of Defense to conduct a mission impact assessment on climate resilience and the impacts of extreme weather.
• Requires the Department of Defense to set energy and water efficiency targets using industry best practices for data centers.

Reforms to enhance accountability for sexual assault and counter the threat of domestic extremism in the military

Sexual Assault

• Removes the Commander from decisions related to the prosecution of covered crimes.
• Creates an Office of the Special Trial Counsel within each Service and ensuring their independence by requiring they directly report to the Service Secretary.
• Criminalizes sexual harassment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. All claims of sexual harassment will be required to be investigated by an independent investigator outside the chain of command.
• Establishes judge-alone sentencing and sentencing parameters to increase fairness across the system.
• Increases the notification for Survivors of Sexual Assault by directing the Services to notify survivors of sexual assault about the outcomes of any administrative action taken against their perpetrator.

Domestic Extremism

• Requires DoD to submit a report on including a criminal article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to address violent extremism
• Directs the Secretary of Defense to provide a briefing on all studies regarding efforts of extremist organizations to recruit members of the armed forces, and a strategy to develop and implement training to prevent such recruitment efforts.

PFAS

• Adds $517 million above the President’s Budget Request for clean-up of military communities impacted by PFAS contamination.
• Adds $100 million for environmental remediation.
• Establishes a 2-year deadline for completion of PFAS testing at Department of Defense and National Guard installations.
• Requires the Department of Defense to report on the status of clean-up at 50 PFAS sites across the country.
• Places a temporary moratorium on the incineration of fire-fighting foam containing PFAS and materials contaminated by PFAS until The Secretary of Defense implements EPA interim guidance.
• Creates a Department of Defense PFAS task force to unify the response to PFAS contamination across the military departments.
• Requires the Department of Defense to publish and make publicly available results of drinking and ground water testing for PFAS conducted on or near military installations, formerly used defense sites, and National Guard sites.