Boozman Backs National Security Package

WASHINGTON--U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) supported Senate passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 that delivers quality of life enhancements for our servicemembers and their families while strengthening America's national security through new policies that bolster recruiting, readiness and lethal capabilities.

The measure also contains provisions Boozman led to advance the creation of an Academic Training Center at Ebbing Air National Guard Base and a framework for the state of Arkansas to request permanent ownership of the former Army-Navy Hospital in Hot Springs.

"Providing for our national defense is one of Congress' primary responsibilities, particularly at an incredibly volatile time around the globe," Boozman said. "That begins with supporting our military personnel and their families with better pay, housing, childcare and other opportunities as well as improving recruitment efforts, enhancing our capacity to deter threats from adversaries, investing in our defense industrial base and ensuring readiness and lethality are the Pentagon's main focus. This bill does just that, including through vital missions and defense industrial support in Arkansas, and I'm pleased it is now headed to the president's desk to become law."

Boozman-led provisions in the FY25 NDAA:

• Authorize funding for an Academic Training Center at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith in support of the F-35 foreign pilot training mission; and
• Allow the state of Arkansas to develop or sell the former Army-Navy Hospital in Hot Springs; require development of the property to complement the national park; and provide a way for land to revert to the federal government if the state does not do so within three years.

Other provisions in the legislation would:

• Provide junior enlisted servicemembers a historic 14.5 percent pay raise and all other servicemembers with a 4.5 percent pay raise;
• Expand military families' access to medical care;
• Support programs that help military spouses obtain or continue employment;
• Enhance housing and childcare options;
• Prioritize recruiting improvements including increased funding for JROTC programs;
• Enhance deterrence against adversaries like China, Iran, Russia, North Korea and terrorist organizations;
• Further invest in the domestic defense industrial base;
• Allow deployment of National Guard troops to the southwest border and empower the Department of Defense (DoD) to increase its illegal migrant and narcotics interdiction efforts; and
• Redirect the DoD away from social policies like DEI, Critical Race Theory and climate change and return to an emphasis on warfighting preparation.l

The measure now heads to the president's desk to be signed into law.

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