On June 16, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved, by unanimous consent, its version of the FY2012 National Defense Authorization Act (as-yet-unnumbered). The Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel approved its portion of the bill on June 14. The House approved its version (H.R. 1540) on May 26 (see The Source, 5/27/11).
According to the committee press release, the bill would authorize $682.5 billion in overall funding for the Department of Defense’s (DoD) base budget and national security activities; President Obama requested $688.9 billion overall. The amount authorized by the committee provides $5.9 billion less than President Obama requested for the DoD base budget and $537 million less than he requested for overseas contingency operations. Included in the overall funding level is $142.4 billion for military personnel.
The legislation would amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to create three separate articles in the UCMJ to correct “deficiencies in existing law” with regard to rape, sexual assault, and sexual misconduct. The bill would require the secretary of Defense, in consultation with the secretary of Veterans’ Affairs, to develop a “comprehensive policy on the retention of, and access to, evidence and records related to sexual assaults involving service members,” and would require the implementation of several of the recommendations of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the military.
The bill would authorize $25 million in supplemental impact aid to local education agencies (LEAs) with military dependent children and a three-year extension for the DoD to provide grants to LEAs serving military dependent children who do not attend DoD schools.
The measure would provide $32.2 billion for the Defense Health Program. This amount is $1.666 billion over FY2011 and the same as the president’s request.
