Vasquez Supports Critical Funding, Jobs and Priorities for New Mexico in the National Defense Authorization Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  On July 14, 2023, Representative Gabe Vasquez’s (NM-02) priorities for New Mexico in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) were passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Vasquez will now work with his Senate colleagues to strip the extreme, right-wing amendments from the bill to pass a final NDAA that supports New Mexicans and is free of discriminatory policies.

“I promised to deliver for the second district, and I’ve worked hard to support New Mexicans by crafting a national defense bill that supports research and the critical missions of our bases while also bringing good-paying jobs to New Mexico,” said Vasquez. “Although extreme, right-wing Republicans were able to include toxic, anti-choice amendments and other extreme provisions in the final House Bill, this is not the final bill, and I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to pass a clean NDAA for the President to sign."

WATCH: Rep. Vasquez Delivers Remarks on Women’s Healthcare in the Military and the  Passage of the NDAA

As a Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Vasquez helped draft the bipartisan FY24 NDAA. Vasquez not only represents the military installations in his district, but as the only delegation member serving on an armed services committee, also represents the military interests of New Mexico at large. The committee held a comprehensive debate before moving the bill to the House floor for consideration. The final bill that passed the House includes provisions Vasquez authored, such as quality-of-life improvements for service members, clean water, energy resiliency on military installations, and support for missions that provide quality jobs for New Mexicans. 

Vasquez helped deliver investments in innovation, security, research, and quality-of-life improvements for servicemen and women that will support New Mexican communities. Vasquez secured more than two dozen provisions in the final passage of the bipartisan FY24 NDAA. 

Notable wins include:

Expanding Military Base’s Child Care: Vasquez secured a bipartisan provision with Rep. Stefanik (R-NY), which expands the “In-Home Child Care Pilot Program” at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, NM. Improving child care for service members is a top priority for Rep. Vasquez.

Addressing PFAS Contamination: Vasquez was able to secure provisions that mandate standardized water quality reports from installations and a report from the Department of Defense (DOD) on the scale of PFAS contamination in drinking water at and around installations.

Improving Housing for Service Members: Vasquez prioritized modernizing facilities at places such as White Sands Missile Range and authored a provision to cut down on issuing waivers for insufficient housing, instead focusing on building new housing for service members.

Helping Service Members’ Families: Vasquez expanded service members’ access to Basic Needs Allowance (BNA) and required an assessment of the BNA and Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) to address disparities between junior and senior service members. The bill also includes a 5.2 percent pay raise for service members. 

Improving Air Quality: Vasquez secured a pilot program at 5 installations to demonstrate the feasibility of using certified low-methane intensity natural gas for fuel needs.

Supporting New Mexico Universities: Vasquez secured a provision to work with the DOD to increase opportunities for the Air Force to partner with academic institutions, such as the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, for cyberspace training and operations. 

A comprehensive list of Vasquez’s provisions that were included in the final passage is below: 

Infrastructure & Environment

1. Clean Water: A provision requiring standardized water quality reports from installations.
2. Alternative Housing/Construction: $2.5M for Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation (RDT&E) of 3D printed cold weather structure technology.
3. Clean Water: Direct Report Language to understand the scale of PFAS contamination in drinking water at and around installations.
4. WSMR Infrastructure: Secured a briefing on the Department of Defense’s (DOD) plans to modernize RDT&E facilities, which is very applicable to infrastructure at White Sands Missile Range.
5. Improving Air Quality: Created a pilot program at 5 installations to demonstrate the feasibility of using certified low-methane intensity natural gas for their fuel needs. 

Quality of Life

1. Childcare: Secured the expansion of the in-home childcare pilot program at 4 military installations, including Holloman Air Force Base.
2. Childcare: $276M in military construction for new Child Development Centers (CDC) and $60M in additional funds to accelerate future CDC replacements.
3. On-Base Housing: Secured Direct Report Language to address availability of housing, quality and affordability of housing, and investments for modernization or new construction of housing on installations.
4. On-Base Housing: Fixing substandard housing on military installations by securing a provision requiring the Secretary of each service to approve any waiver for unaccompanied housing on military installations that does not meet that services’ minimum quality standards, and requires a quarterly briefing on what is being done to fix issues that required waivers. This also withholds 25% of that services Operations & Management’s budget until the briefings are provided.
5. On-Base Housing: Protecting against air impurity and mold in military housing by creating a pilot program to be used at 1 Army, Navy, and Air Force installation, to use sensors for air purity and to detect conditions that encourage mold growth to protect the health of service members who live there, and protect the buildings from mold damage.
6. On-Base Housing: $369.3M in military construction to replace derelict barracks and dormitories for single and unaccompanied service members, along with an additional $150M to plan and design replacement facilities.
7. Jobs at Our Installations: Ordered the Government Accountability Office to assess civilian support vacancies at rural and remote installations such as Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range, and give the DOD recommendations on ways it can incentivize workers to fill those roles. 
8. Assistance Benefits: Secured the removal of Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) from the calculation of service member eligibility for the Basic Needs Allowance (BNA).
9. Assistance Benefits: Secured a reporting requirement for how BNA can be better targeted towards service members who need it. 
10. Assistance Benefits: Secured a reporting requirement to review how Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) is determined, understanding disparities between junior and senior service members, and establishing no less than 3 different BAS rates for enlisted personnel based on rank and income.  

Technology

1. General National Security: Secured $5M for Advanced Analog Microelectronics.
2. General National Security: Secured report language urging DOD to continue to expand development into autonomous systems with software-defined autonomy.
3. General National Security: Secured a briefing on how DOD plans to transition Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) from an experimental program to program of record. NTS-3 technology helps ensure resilient GPS architecture by adding complementary satellites which fly in geosynchronous orbit, whereas GPS is in medium Earth orbit.
4. General National Security: Secured $1.519B in funding for Low Earth Orbit missile tracking technology.
5. Supporting NM Universities: Secured a briefing from the Secretary of the Air Force on opportunities for the Air Force to partner with academic institutions to provide additional capabilities to test and train for cyberspace operations.

National Security 

1. Supporting NM Jobs: Secured a briefing from DOD on how they’re qualifying new solid rocket motors and to create a unified strategy for qualifying new solid rocket motors.
2. Supporting NM Jobs: Mandates DOD to submit a strategy for hypersonic testing infrastructure, which will encourage further hypersonic weapons development and testing.
3. Supporting NM Jobs: Secured $7M in RDT&E funding for unmanned air and missile defense technology, with testing at White Sands Missile Range. 
4. General National Security: Secured report language encouraging DOD to leverage commercially available products and services to increase the affordability and frequency of hypersonic weapons testing and development.
5. General National Security: Secured a briefing on the feasibility of using the Aleutian Test Range as a hypersonic test range and corridor for testing long-distance hypersonic systems.
6. General National Security: Secured $82.8M for RDT&E, $439M for Navy procurement, and $701.5M for Air Force procurement of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles. 
7. General National Security: Secured $1.6B for aircraft procurement for the B-21, which is the next generation stealth bomber aircraft.
8. General National Security: Secured a DOD requirement for an integrated master schedule for the Sentinel missile program and well as quarterly briefings on the program’s progress. The Sentinel missile is the next generation of land-based nuclear missiles which will replace the aging Minutemen III.

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