The B-21 Raider was unveiled to the public at a ceremony Dec. 2, 2022, in Palmdale, Calif. (U.S. Air Force)
(Tribune News Service) — Billions in federal funding is earmarked for South Dakota as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed their version of the NDAA June 13 by a 22-to-3 vote, advancing the legislation — which carries a topline of $923.3 billion — to the full Senate floor for consideration.
The 64th annual NDAA is the tenth crafted in part by South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and was recently named the second most effective Republican on defense issues by Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia’s Center for Effective Lawmaking.
“There will be some people that will disagree with spending more money on defense, but it looks to us like at this day and age — where we have real risks out there in a very dangerous world where there’s lots of things on fire — we would have been shirking our responsibilities if we would not have acknowledged just how critical some of these additional needs are,” Rounds said. “If we would not have met these additional needs, we wouldn’t have been doing our job.”
Out of that topline is billions for projects at and impacting Ellsworth Air Force Base, including $282 million for construction projects and $2.6 billion specifically for the B-21 Raider program, which is inching closer to high-speed production, Rounds said.
Millions in construction dollars will fund the B-21 Flight Simulator Facility Squadron Operations ($44 million), B-21 Alert Apron Environmental Protection Shelters ($79 million) and B-21 Weapons Generation Facility ($105 million), among others. Part of that legislation will also allow funds from minor projects to roll over into the next fiscal year, streamlining an installation’s ability to handle renovation projects without additional government red tape.
This significant investment, Rounds said, confirms there is still solid support for the development and implementation of the B-21 program.
“This bomber will be in existence for probably 50 years or longer. It will be continuously updated,” Rounds said. “And the fact that we’ve got about $282 million in additional construction authorized at Ellsworth Air Force Base just simply reassures that the bed-down is on its way to completion.”
In addition to construction and procurement, the Fiscal Year 2025 NDAA also authorizes a 4.5% pay increase for military members and 2% bump for Department of Defense civilian employees.
Senate Bill 3553, Rounds’ Military Personnel Confirmation Restoration Act, was also included in the Senate version. SB 3553 would provide backpay and update dates of rank and service records of officers whose promotions were delayed because of Senate infighting.
Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville had held up hundreds of military promotions while protesting a Pentagon abortion policy which allowed military members to take time off and be reimbursed for travel expenses if they traveled out-of-state for an abortion.
Rounds explained servicemembers affected by the delay lost considerable pay and time-in-rank, something they’re hoping to insulate against in the future.
“It sends a message to the folks that actually serve in the services that we’re going to do our best not to make them feel the pain of a political disagreement that we have,” Rounds said.
The Senate Armed Services Committee version of the legislation will now head to the full floor for consideration.
Rounds said he doesn’t anticipate significant pushback, but acknowledged there will likely be discussions with the House regarding their version and the $25 billion increase in the bill’s topline.
The House version authorizes $849.8 billion in spending and cleared the floor with a narrow 217-to-199 vote last Friday. South Dakota’s lone representative in the House, Republican Dusty Johnson, voted in favor of the legislation. Two policies Johnson authored — the Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act and Amendment No. 346 — were included in the House’s version. The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act aims to curb Chinese influence over global shipping markets, while Amendment No. 346 would require Congress to better understand the production and acquisition of shipping containers from foreign adversaries.
“Countering China is a crucial aspect of improving our national defense and so is strengthening our supply chains,” Johnson said. “The NDAA is a strong bill that prioritizes our troops and strengthens our national security. I’m glad my provisions were included.”
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