Durbin Statement On Senate Passage Of NDAA For Fiscal Year 2025

Durbin Statement On Senate Passage Of NDAA For Fiscal Year 2025

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, today released the following statement after voting for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes an authorization of nearly $895 billion for the national defense budget, including support for Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, and a 4.5 percent pay raise for all military personnel and a historic 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted troops:

"Today, the Senate finally passed the NDAA with a bipartisan vote, underscoring both parties' commitment to a strong national defense and to the protection of our service members. Illinois will see investment from this year's NDAA, and I will continue to push for federal funding to support military operations in our state.

"While I support the final version of the bill because it includes critical support for our military, I am frustrated that my provision to support DACA-holders and other immigrants with critical skills or expertise in joining the military was stripped from the bill and that care for transgender children was used as a political ploy. I hope in the future that my colleagues will understand the importance of gender-affirming care and the contributions of our nation's immigrants."

Durbin-led measures included in the FY25 NDAA are:

• Energy Resilience at Rock Island Arsenal. The bill authorizes $73.5 million in energy resilience upgrades for power generation resources and a new microgrid at Rock Island Arsenal.

• READ Act Reauthorization Act. The bill includes a provision to reauthorize for another five years Durbin's READ Act, which supports strategic U.S. foreign assistance programs that expand access to quality basic education for vulnerable children around the world.

• Impact Aid. The bill authorizes $70 million in topline Impact Aid funding to support school districts located near military bases.

• Ukraine. The bill retains Durbin's FY24 NDAA provision that prohibits funds for the recognition of any sovereign Ukrainian territory forcibly seized by Russia.

• Baltic Security Initiative. The bill authorizes a one-year extension for security assistance in support of Baltic military exercises in the face of continued Russian aggression.

• Provision that extends, through 2027, the requirement for an annual report on lethal strikes undertaken by the U.S. against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities. This provision is the only public transparency regarding all such strikes.

• Provision accelerating DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which will support critical research and development in quantum technologies across the country, including at the new Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park.

As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Durbin helped secure a number of provisions that were in the jurisdiction of the Committee. These provisions include:

• Administrative False Claims Act: The NDAA also incorporates the bipartisan Grassley-Durbin Administrative False Claims Act, which increases the maximum amount of a fraud claim that may be handled administratively from $150,000 to $1 million and allows the government to recoup costs for investigating and prosecuting these frauds.

• Kids Online Safety: The NDAA includes the Project Safe Childhood Act-one of the five online kids' safety bills reported unanimously out of the Senate Judiciary Committee-that would modernize the investigation and prosecution of online child exploitation crimes.

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