Congressman Kim Votes to Pass National Defense Authorization Act, Delivering Jobs and Wins for New Jersey

Washington, DC – Yesterday, Congressman Andy Kim voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022. Congressman Kim worked to secure historic investments in technology and innovation that will help keep jobs in New Jersey, prepare our country for the unprecedented challenges ahead, and honor the sacrifices our service members and their families make through a 2.7 percent pay raise.

The bill passed with bipartisan support and a vote of 316-113.

"The last place partisan politics belongs is in discussions about our national security, and I'm proud to have worked with colleagues in both parties to achieve significant wins for our service members, their families, New Jersey, and our economy," said Congressman Kim. "From providing billions of dollars to create new jobs and support small businesses in Burlington and Ocean Counties, to achieving a pay raise for all military service members, to making major investments in DoD climate research, I'm proud to have worked in a bipartisan way to get these priorities passed."

Provisions championed by Congressman Kim include:

Supporting Jobs In New Jersey

• Congressman Kim's Put Our Neighbors to Work Act, helps local and small businesses by:
  • Requiring the Department of Defense (DoD) to give preference to contractors for military construction projects that will use workers from the same state, or a 60-mile radius from where the work will occur.
  • Requiring the DoD to publicly post opportunities for local contractors and sub-contractors, alerting small businesses so they can be aware of opportunities to bid for military contracts.
• $25.866 million for Aegis Ashore Guam, which supports hundreds of good, high-paying engineering and manufacturing jobs at the Lockheed Martin facility in Moorestown.
• Funding for the development of a digital low noise amplifier modification to the existing AN/SPY-1 radar, to be done in New Jersey.
• Directing a study from the Navy that could help position Lockheed Martin to compete and win contracts that will fund more high-paying manufacturing jobs in New Jersey.
• $6.369 billion in continued support for the Virginia-Class submarine program, which supports at least nine small parts manufacturers in NJ-03, including DC Fabricators in Florence, Champion Fasteners in Lumberton, Garvey Precision Machine in Willingboro, and Sea Box in Cinnaminson among others.
• Expanding opportunities for the CACI C5ISR project at Joint Base McGuire Dix-Lakehurst, which enhances the capability of U.S. forces to operate from environments where access to GPS is not available.

Supporting Military Families

• 2.7 percent increase in military pay for all military service members.
• Creating a basic needs allowance to ensure all military families can put food on the table and live dignified lives. Congressman Kim is a cosponsor of the Military Hunger Prevention Act and highlighted hunger as a critical issue among military families in arecent Armed Services Committee hearing.
• Congressman Kim's Onward to Opportunity Act, which creates a pilot program at the Department of Defense that expands assistance programing for servicemembers, veterans, and their spouses in finding more and better post-military service career opportunities while also assisting them in transitioning to civilian life.
• Revolutionizing the military's response to reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault by criminalizing sexual harassment within the Uniform Code of Military Justice and moving prosecution decisions in cases of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and all offenses against children out of the military chain of command.
• Supporting military families by expanding military paid parental leave up to 18 weeks and expanding allowable leave for military foster parents.
• Directing DoD to use strict standards for limiting PFAS chemicals, restricting DoD from purchasing products that contain PFAS, and directing the Secretary of Defense to provide DoD medical providers with mandatory training to deal with the potential health effects of PFAS.
  • These changes build on Congressman Kim's legislation to phase out the use of firefighting foam containing PFAS, which was passed into law as part of the Fiscal Year 2020 NDAA, to protect the health of our servicemembers, their families, and surrounding communities.

Investing in America's Defense, Cyber Security, and Innovation

• Investing $24 million in DoD climate research.
• Providing an additional $15 million for the GenCyber program, a summer cybersecurity camp for K-12 students and teachers to increase training and interest in cybersecurity skillsets.
• Increasing funding for the Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship-for-Service program from $77 million to $84 million so more undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields who have already committed to working in national security can access this pipeline for training the next generation of cybersecurity experts.
• Creating a cybersecurity training pilot program at the Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans and members of the Armed Forces transitioning from service to civilian life.
• Encouraging DoD to adopt new technologies by supporting emerging technology adoption training programs and requiring DoD to submit a report to Congress on plans for future training programs. Congressman Kim identified this need in consultation with defense startups and at events like the New Jersey National Security Innovation Summit.

Congressman Kim is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Small Business Committee. The Congressman is also a co-chair of the House Democratic National Security Task Force. Prior to serving in the House, Congressman Kim worked as a career public servant under both Democrats and Republicans. He served at USAID, the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and in Afghanistan as an advisor to Generals Petraeus and Allen.

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