Today, the House Appropriations Committee released the Fiscal Year 2024 bill for the Defense Subcommittee. The bill will be considered tomorrow, June 15th at 10:00 a.m. The markup will be closed. The Defense bill funds agencies and programs under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense (DOD) and Intelligence Community, including the Military Services, Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency. For Fiscal Year 2024, the bill provides $826.45 billion in new discretionary spending, which is $285.87 million over the President’s Budget Request and $28.71 billion – or 3.6% – over the FY23 enacted level. The bill prioritizes funding to counter China, optimize DOD’s workforce, promote innovation, support servicemembers and their families, and increase DOD’s role in combatting the flow of fentanyl, synthetic opioids, and other illegal drugs into the United States. Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Bill

• Ensuring servicemembers and their families have the support they need by:
  • Funding a 5.2% pay raise for our servicemembers;
  • Including a historic pay increase for junior enlisted servicemembers of an average of 30%;
  • Directing the Department to assess on-installation childcare capacity and staff hiring challenges and to develop a plan to reduce wait time; and
  • Supporting youth-focused programs such as Impact Aid, National Guard Youth Challenge, Sea Cadets, Young Marines, and STARBASE.
• Counters China by:
  • Making a historic investment in security cooperation funding for Taiwan;
    • Supporting training programs for Taiwan, including through the National Guard State Partnership Program.
    • Prioritizing the delivery of defense articles and services to Taiwan.
  • Rejecting the Biden Administration’s inadequate shipbuilding plan by preventing 4 ships from early retirement;
  • Increasing investments in 5th and 6th generation aircraft like the F-35 and Next Generation Air Dominance; and
  • Including over $9 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which bolsters U.S. military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Optimizes the Pentagon’s civilian workforce by:
  • Cutting $1 billion of the President’s Budget Request to increase the size of the civilian workforce;
  • Directing the Department to reassess the number and roles of its civilian personnel needed for its core mission, tasks, and functions and ensuring the Department has an appropriate workforce for areas that directly serve the warfighter, like depots and shipyards; and
  • Providing funding to accelerate the Department’s digital transformation of business practices through the Chief Data Artificial Intelligence Office.
• Innovates and modernizes the Military by:
  • Investing in next-generation fighter aircraft, helicopters, tactical combat vehicles, and submarines;
  • Empowers combatant commanders to quickly obtain the cutting-edge technology and weapons they need and to rapidly get them to the warfighter;
  • Funding the modernization of the nuclear triad: the B-21 Raider, the Columbia Class Submarine, and Sentinel;
  • Providing significant funding for the Defense Innovation Unit and the military services to accelerate acquisition processes;
  • Fully funding the Office of Strategic Capital to maximize the use of private capital for defense emerging technologies and manufacturing; and
  • Including increased funding for the successful program to Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT).
• Enhancing DOD’s role in countering the flow of illicit fentanyl and synthetic opioids by:
  • Providing $1.16 billion for the drug interdiction and counterdrug activities account, which is $275 million above the President’s Budget Request;
  • Increasing funding for the National Guard Counterdrug Program;
  • Increasing funding for train and equip programs to counter illicit fentanyl and synthetic opioids and the transnational criminal organizations that contribute to the fentanyl crisis, particularly the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels; and
  • Transferring Mexico from U.S. Northern Command to U.S. Southern Command, which enables better coordination and prioritization.

A summary of the bill is available here.

Bill text is available here.

Original source can be found here.