WASHINGTON, D.C. – Led by Chairman John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), the Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness today released their proposals for the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Subcommittee will meet at 8:00am ET on Thursday, June 9 in Rayburn 2118 and via the WebEx platform. The markup will be live streamed on the committee’s website. The Subcommittee's mark is available here.  

Specifically, this year's proposal:

Increases Oversight of Privatized Military Family Housing Projects:
  • Increases congressional oversight of the privatized military family housing program by requiring an annual briefing on the health and status of military housing privatization projects enterprise wide.  
     
Continues Efforts to Address Contamination Associated Around Military Installations and Formerly Used Defense Sites:
  • Requires the Department to send a list of essential uses for PFAS. Also requires the Department to report on its progress in minimizing the use of certain non-essential PFOS and PFOA containing items.
  • Requires the Department of Defense to implement Comptroller General recommendations to set goals for the timely clean-up of formerly used defense sites that fall under the military munitions response program.

Continues Efforts to Support and Strengthen the Organic Industrial Base and Ensure the Sustainment of Modern Weapons Systems:
  • Raises the annual depot minimum capital investment requirement from 6% to 8% and requires that the services invest 25% of the 8% in depot facilities sustainment, restoration, and modernization.
  • Requires the services to submit annual five-year depot infrastructure improvement plans for the next five fiscal years.
  • Creates a permanent requirement that the Department submit a report with each year’s budget that describes the services’ planned depot investments and the material condition of the depots.
  • Creates a permanent requirement for the Navy to submit an annual 30-year maintenance plan along with its annual 30-year shipbuilding plan.
  • Requires the Comptroller General to conduct a review of fighter aircraft readiness that addresses historical operation and support costs, planned modernization efforts, employment of sustainment best practices, and whether operation and maintenance funding levels have impacted fighter readiness.
  • Requires the Comptroller General to conduct a review of the F-35's initial deployments and assess the extent to which operational F-35s have met performance expectations and experienced sustainment-related challenges.
 
Builds on Previous Legislative and Oversight Activities to Address Preventable Training Accidents and Build a Culture of Safety in the Military Departments:
  • Amends the Joint Safety Council statute to require that the Deputy Secretary of Defense submit annual reports containing an assessment of the JSC’s activities during the previous year and establishing the JSC’s goals and priorities for the following year.
  • Requires the Secretaries of the Army and Air Force to establish Army and Air Force Safety Commands at the two-star level, as the Navy has done. Also requires the Army and Air Force to establish processes to ensure the implementation of accident investigation recommendations.
 
Builds on Efforts to Promote Innovation and Improve Logistics Efficiency:
  • Recognizing that the sustainment and modernization of our labs, research, test, and evaluation facilities has implications across the Department of Defense-wide, this Subcommittee mark creates a novel authority that would use defense-wide military construction accounts to fund these military construction projects.
  • Requires a briefing from the Defense Logistics Agency on the Warehouse Utilization Pilot, which aims to consolidate and reorganize warehouses and make operations more efficient and less costly.

Continues to Build on Efforts to Support the Department of Defense Civilian Workforce:
  • Requires the Department of Defense to develop standardized credentials for law enforcement officers across the Department.
  • Extends the Department’s authority to grant allowances, benefits, and gratuities to Department of Defense civilian personnel on official duty in a combat zone.

Continues the Subcommittee’s Work to Address Energy and Installation Resiliency:
  • Requires the military departments to expand their “blackstart” exercises to require continuity of operations assessments to identify readiness gaps. 
  • Requires the Department of Defense to promulgate a policy to increase the recycling of advanced batteries to address rare and strategic mineral shortages.
  • Requires the Department to create a pilot program to collaborate with civilian airfields on the use of sustainable aviation fuel in military aircraft.
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