[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 199 (Thursday, December 12, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





 CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. 1790, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR 
                            FISCAL YEAR 2020

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. JOHN GARAMENDI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 11, 2019

  Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the fiscal year 
2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). I would like to start 
by thanking Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Thornberry, and the House 
Armed Services Committee staff who have worked tirelessly throughout 
this past year to get us to this point. It's a good bill and I 
encourage my colleagues to support the conference report.
  As the Chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee, I worked closely with 
members on and off the committee to ensure the bill addressed three 
priority areas affecting our military.
  First, the bill includes a number of bipartisan provisions aimed at 
addressing problems associated with the management and oversight of 
military family housing. The bill does the following:
  Requires the military services to establish a tenants' bill of rights 
for residents of privatized military family housing;
  Requires the Department to establish a standardized assessment tool 
to be used in evaluating military housing for certain risks, including 
lead and mold;
  Prohibits the use of non-disclosure agreements as a condition of 
moving out of military housing;
  Authorizes additional funding to ensure installation housing offices 
are properly staffed; and
  Provides for a temporary direct hiring authority for government 
housing personnel to increase oversight of private contractors.
  Second, the bill authorizes additional funding and includes 
bipartisan provisions to mitigate contaminated drinking water for 
households and agriculture resulting from fluorinated compounds around 
military installations:
  Bans DOD use of fire fighting agents containing PFAS by 2024;
  Requires DOD to ensure that when disposing of AFFF and supplies used 
to remediate PFAS contamination, it does so in a manner that is safe 
and does not create further pollution;
  Bans the use of PFAS chemicals in the packaging of the meals (MREs) 
our service members eat when deployed in combat areas and for training;
  Closes a loophole in the DOD Environmental clean-up accounts that was 
keeping the National Guard from being able to access these funds to 
address PFOS and PFOA contamination;
  Authorizes DOD to provide alternative water to farmers effected by 
PFAS contaminated agricultural water;
  Bans the use fire fighting agents containing PFAS for training;
  Bans the uncontrolled release of fire fighting agents containing PFAS 
for any purpose other than putting out fires;
  Addresses DOD's refusal to acknowledge State-promulgated drinking 
water standards by requiring their use when they are more stringent 
than federal standards; and
  Requires the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey to establish a 
performance standard for detecting PFAS and then conduct nationwide 
sampling to determine the extent of PFAS contamination and then report 
to Congress the results.
  Third, the bill contains a number of provisions to increase military 
installation resiliency efforts to ensure better planning to assess 
vulnerabilities and facility codes to mitigate the risk future natural 
and man-made disasters:
  Requires DoD develop installation master plans that assess current 
climate vulnerabilities and plan for mitigating the risks to 
installations from extreme weather events, mean sea level fluctuation, 
wildfires, flooding, and other changes in environmental conditions 
using projections from recognized governmental and scientific entities.
  Limits DoD's ability to spend planning and design funds until it 
initiates the process of amending the building standards for military 
construction (Unified Facility Criteria) to ensure that building 
practices and standards promote energy, climate, and cyber resilience 
at military installations.
  Requires all proposals for military construction projects to consider 
potential long-term changes in environmental conditions, and 
increasingly frequent extreme weather events, as well as, industry 
best-practices to withstand extreme weather events.
  Requires DoD to report on the feasibility of transitioning 
installation planning from 100-year floodplain data to a forward-
looking predictive model that takes into account the impacts of sea-
level rise.
  Establishes a pilot authority for the Department of Defense to carry 
out military construction projects, with prior congressional 
notification, that enhance military installation resilience, mission 
assurance, support mission critical functions, and address known 
vulnerabilities.
  Authorizes an additional $133 million for military construction 
projects under the Department's Energy Resiliency and Conservation 
Investment Program.
  Directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct a black start exercise at 
three major military installations to ensure installation resiliency in 
the case of a total power outage.
  I'm proud of the funding authorized by, and legislative provisions 
included within the Readiness Subcommittee's jurisdiction. The bill 
authorizes $261.6 billion in operation & maintenance funding to support 
training, maintenance, and military operations; $11.8 billion for 
MILCON, family housing, and BRAC; and $4.1 billion in emergency 
authorization for MILCON for recovery of military installations damaged 
by natural disasters. The conference report also provides twelve weeks 
of paid parental leave for all federal employees.
  I'm also pleased this NDAA includes a 3.1 percent pay raise for our 
troops and includes key provisions of my bill, H.R. 2617, the 
Occupational and Environmental Transparency Health Act, which will 
require DoD to input any Occupational Environmental Health hazards 
exposure into servicemembers' records while deployed, so it is tracked 
throughout their career and into veteran status.
  Additionally, this year's NDAA funds important priorities at Travis 
and Beale Air Force Bases in my district. The military construction 
projects authorized in this bill will support the new KC-46 mission at 
Travis Air Force Base and will improve resilience and power supply at 
Beale Air Force Base, enabling it to continue to support intelligence, 
surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and multi-domain operations.
  While there are many positive outcomes, I am disappointed that the 
prohibition of funding for the deployment of new, low-yield nuclear 
warheads for submarines did not survive the conference process, and am 
also disappointed in the omission of critical provisions that were in 
the House-passed bill to reform border deployment and ensure funding 
for our military is spent wisely and as Congress intended, and not on 
an unnecessary border wall, such as the following:
  Preventing the President from diverting Defense funding to pay for an 
unnecessary border wall;
  Prohibiting funding for the construction of a wall, barrier, or fence 
along the southern land border;
  Amending the emergency construction authority (10 USC 2808) to limit 
the total cost of military construction projects undertaken during a 
national emergency to $500 million, with a further limit of $100 
million for construction projects within the United States; and
  Prohibiting reprogramming of funds into the counter drug account, 
which has been used by the Administration to do construction along the 
southern land border.
  Overall, I am proud of the Readiness Subcommittee's contribution to 
this year's bill and would like to thank the Readiness staff, Brian 
Garrett, Jeanine Womble, Melanie Harris, Brian Greer, John Muller, Dave 
Sienicki, Megan Handle, and Sean Falvey, and my personal staff, Betsy 
Thompson and Dan Naske, for their tireless work. Dan will be departing 
the Hill after next week, and I would like to personally thank him for 
his hard work and sharing his expertise with us this past year. He has 
been an invaluable member of my staff and we will miss him dearly.
  This bill helps advance our military's near-term readiness goals and 
drives the Department to plan for and take action against long-term 
threats, and with that, I urge my colleagues to support the FY20 NDAA.

                          ____________________