On November 5, the House approved, 370-58, a revised version of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In October, Congress approved H.R. 1735, the original version of the NDAA (see The Source, 10/9/15). However, President Obama vetoed the measure on October 22, citing his opposition to funding for overseas contingency operations (OCO), which exceeded the spending caps established in the Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25).
On October 28, Congress approved the Bipartisan Budget Act (P.L. 114-74) (see The Source, 10/30/15). The House and Senate Armed Services Committee Joint Explanatory Statement explains that the bill “did not fully fund account 050 [National Defense] to the level requested by the president in his budget submission, and as agreed to by the conferees and authorized in H.R. 1735. As a result, the agreement [S. 1356] includes a reduction of $5 billion from the level authorized in H.R. 1735 to conform to Public Law 114-74.”
S.1356 would authorize $599.213 billion overall, which includes $521.858 billion for base funding at the Department of Defense, $58.797 billion for OCO, and $18.529 billion for national security programs at the Department of Energy. Military personnel would receive $135.56 billion and the Defense Health Program would receive $31.527 billion in FY2016. Military construction would receive $8.079 billion, of which $1.404 billion would be set aside for family housing.
The bill also retains the original provisions to address military sexual assault and to assist local education agencies that educate large numbers of military dependent children.
