Congress passes defense authorization bill, a boon for Hampton Roads
The new $527 billion defense authorization bill, passed by the Senate Thursday night, eases cost caps on the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford and the rest of her class of advanced vessels to be built by Newport News Shipbuilding and clears the way for more than $50 million of construction at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
Coming on the heels of this month's budget compromise, the bill means Hampton Roads will dodge what could have been a very rough year in 2014, said Sen. Tim Kaine.
"The one-two of the budget and the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) is a big win for Hampton Roads," he said.
The House of Representatives had passed the bill Dec. 12.
Kaine, who pushed hard to boost spending caps on carrier work during the Armed Services Committee's mark-up of the bill, said failing to pass the budget compromise would have set off $20 billion of additional Defense Department spending cuts that would have hit ship repair work particularly hard. The authorization bill restores $3.5 billion to operations and maintenance accounts, the pool from which ship repair work is paid.
The authorization bill, meanwhile, also lifts the cap on spending for the just-launched Ford to $12.9 billion, and raises the spending cap for rest of the class, including the John F. Kennedy, which is also under construction at the yard, to $11.5 billion.
It adds $492 million to this year's budget for Virginia class submarines, bringing that total to $3.4 billion.
The bill shaves $22 million from the sum allotted for refueling the nuclear carriers bringing that total to just under $1.7 billion. Still, that funding will keep more than 400 Newport News Shipbuilding jobs secure, Kaine said.
The bill includes $50 million for a new Army barracks and $4 million for a new Air Force munitions facility at Langley-Eustis.
The bill also fully funds the Air Combat Command's request for the F-22 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.
Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner also won approval in the bill for their proposal that victims and witnesses in sexual abuse cases involving military personnel be covered by the federal whistle-blower act.
Kaine's first legislation, for a program to make it easier for veterans to win civilian credentials to recognize their training and experience in the military, also got a green light in the authorization bill."
"This is a small but important step to help whittle away at the unacceptably high rate of veterans' unemployment — particularly among those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — and I remain committed to exploring all avenues to address this issue," Kaine said.
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