Defense Authorization Bill Headed to Senate Floor

On June 13, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved, 23-3, its version of the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (as-yet-unnumbered). The Personnel Subcommittee approved its portion of the bill on June 11. The House approved its version of the legislation on June 14 (see The Source, 6/14/13).

According to the committee summary, the bill, as amended, would authorize a total of $625.1 billion in FY2014 for national defense programs at the Departments of Defense and Energy, as well as for overseas contingency operations (OCO). Specifically, the measure would authorize $526.6 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD), $80.7 billion for OCO, and $17.8 billion for the Department of Energy.

The measure contains $136.8 billion for military personnel and $33.3 billion for the Defense Health Program. Military construction, housing programs, and base closure activities would be authorized at $9.66 billion in FY2014. However, in order to address the “shortfalls created by sequestration,” the bill would cut from President Obama’s requested amounts $1.34 billion from military construction and $16.6 billion from family housing programs.

The bill includes several provisions that would address the issue of sexual assault in the military. The following list includes a few of the provisions included in the bill; for a complete list of the provisions dealing with sexual assault, please see pages 12-14 of the committee summary. The measure would:

• Amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to limit the ability of a convening authority to modify the findings of a court-martial to specified sexual offenses;
• Require the automatic higher review of decisions by commanders to prosecute sexual assault allegations if those decisions disagree with the military lawyer’s recommendation;
• Require secretaries of the armed forces branches to provide a special victims’ counsel who would provide legal counsel to service members who are victims of sexual assault committed by a member of the armed forces;
• Express the sense of the Senate that “commanding officers should be held accountable for maintaining a command climate in which sexual assault allegations are properly managed and fairly evaluated, and victims can report criminal activity, including sexual assault, without fear of retaliation”;
• Require commanding officers to immediately refer reports of sexual offenses involving service members in the commander’s chain of command to the appropriate military criminal investigation organization; and
• Eliminate the five-year statute of limitation on trial by court-martial for certain sexual offenses.

The bill also would require the secretary of Defense to report on the retention, career progression, and promotion opportunities for female service members.

Local educations agencies (LEAs) with military dependent children would receive $25 million in supplemental impact aid; schools with military dependent children with severe disabilities would receive $5 million.