On May 12, the House Armed Services Committee approved, 60-1, the FY2012 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1540). The Military Personnel Subcommittee approved its portion of the measure on May 4 (see The Source, 5/6/11).
The bill would authorize a total of $690 billion in FY2012 for the Department of Defense and national security activities. That amount includes $553 billion for the Department of Defense budget and $119 billion for overseas contingency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the committee documents, the total also includes $142.144 billion for military personnel (p. 340), $31.994 billion for the Defense Health Program (p. 343), and $3.849 billion for defense-wide military construction (p. 359).
The bill would provide legal assistance to service members who are victims of sexual assault and a 1.6 percent pay increase in basic military pay.
During consideration of the bill, the committee adopted, by separate voice votes, two en bloc packages that contained amendments relating to sexual assault in the military. The committee adopted: