Senate and House Armed Services Committees Complete Conference on FY20 National Defense Authorization Act
U.S. Senators Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Representatives Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, today announced details of the Conference Report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which authorizes funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programs of the Department of Energy.
“The Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act fulfills one of Congress’ most important constitutional duties: to provide for the common defense. This bipartisan, bicameral agreement puts our troops and America’s security first by continuing to rebuild our military, positioning our Armed Forces to meet the next wave of threats outlined in the National Defense Strategy, reforming the business side of the Pentagon, and most importantly, caring for our service members and their families.
“This conference report supports a discretionary topline of $738 billion, consistent with the recent bipartisan budget agreement. This includes $71.5 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations funding. In addition, the report authorizes $5.3 billion in emergency disaster recovery to help military installations across the country from extreme weather and natural disasters.
“This conference report is the product of months of hard-fought, but always civil and ultimately productive, negotiations. We would like to thank all the conferees for their contributions and hard work. We look forward to ushering the conference report through the House and Senate as soon as possible and on to the President’s desk for his signature.
“The NDAA remains one of the few authorization bills that Congress passes year after year. That is because both houses of Congress and both parties recognize its importance and work together to support the brave men and women of our Armed Forces and to provide them with the resources, equipment, training, and policy needed to protect our nation. We take this responsibility very seriously, and we are proud to produce a conference report that achieves shared goals for the 59th year in a row.”
The committee summary of the final conference report is available here. Text of the conference report and the joint explanatory statement will be available on rules.house.gov.
