The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to pass the latest iteration of the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual military spending bill that sets the Pentagon’s priorities. It included pay raises for troops and a major emphasis on military infrastructure in the Pacific amid simmering tensions with China and North Korea.
The bill authorizes over $2.2 billion in spending on Hawaii facilities. More than half — $1.2 billion — goes to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for the new Dry Dock 5, which is the most expensive single construction project in the U.S. Navy’s history. It will replace the current Dry Dock 3, which was built in 1942 and is unable to service the Navy’s newer Virginia-class submarines or larger surface ships.
Among other things it also includes $505 million for the Water Treatment Plant at Red Hill, $203.5 million for a new hangar and parking apron at Marine Corps Base Hawaii and $36.6 million for a Hawaii Air National Guard Space Control Center at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
It also gives more freedom to commanders in Hawaii to make changes to military installations around the Pacific by increasing the threshold of authority for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to conduct “minor military construction projects” up to $30 million.
“This year’s NDAA invests in critical DOD infrastructure, bolsters national security and readiness, supports our service members, and delivers for the people of Hawaii,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said. “As Chair of the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, I’m proud to have helped secure provisions to increase pay for military personnel and ensure service members and their families can access and afford basic needs like child care and health care.”
The new bill requires the Pentagon to designate two officials — one for Hawaii and one for Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands — to be responsible for coordinating infrastructure projects with state, territorial, local governments and community members that are intended to support additional service members and their families who are expected to find themselves stationed in the Pacific over the next decade.
The bill also directs the Pentagon to implement all of the recommendations from Inspector General Reports this year that identified failings and safety oversights at fuel storage facilities around the world — including in Hawaii at the now infamous Red Hill facility.
In November 2021, a fuel leak from Red Hill entered the Navy’s Oahu water system, which serves 93,000 people, a number of whom reported health problems from exposure to contaminated tap water. The Navy is conducting ongoing cleanup operations at the World War II-era fuel farm, which sits just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Honolulu relies on for drinking water.
In a provision included by Hirono, the bill established a new militarywide classification system for “major mishap incidents,” defined as incidents that surpass $500 million in damage or loss and have a significant effect on national security.
If an incident meets these criteria and is designated by the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon will be required to appoint a two-star admiral or general as the investigating officer and complete the investigation within 12 months. The provision also requires mandatory follow-on reports to Congress until all disciplinary actions are completed.
The bill also includes a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted personnel aimed at improving quality of life and potentially boosting recruiting and retention. The military has struggled to attract and keep recruits in recent years, with only the Marine Corps meeting recruiting goals set by the Pentagon. The bill also includes a smaller 4.5% pay increase for more senior military personnel and a 2% pay raise for Department of Defense civilian employees.
Another provision authorizes military services to provide travel and transportation allowances to pay for the shipping of two privately owned vehicles during military moves. Current law limits reimbursement for only one vehicle, which military couples and families moving to places like Hawaii and Guam have cited as major hardships when moving from the mainland.
The bill also contains authorization for an increase of $50 million of Impact Aid to support schools located near military communities and an additional $20 million for children with severe disabilities.
Defense spending has played an outsize role in Hawaii’s economy, with the Pentagon now pumping an estimated roughly $7.9 billion into the state, accounting for roughly 8.3% of the islands’ total gross domestic product. Both federal and local politicians have sought to channel funding into creating high-paying tech jobs and backing education programs they hope will support that growth.
The most recent iteration of the NDAA requests $4 million above the White House’s requested national budget for the Pacific Intelligence and Innovation Initiative, which aims to creates a local skilled workforce in Hawaii to meet the military’s demand for intelligence, information technology and cybersecurity professionals to support operations in the Pacific.
Outgoing President Joe Biden is expected to pass the bill. But debate over military spending was sometimes bitter this year with culture war issues taking front and center.
This year Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate successfully pushed for a provision that stops TRICARE, the military’s health insurance, from covering hormone therapy and other treatments for children who identify as transgender.
In a statement, Hirono said that “while this NDAA takes important steps to ensure the readiness of our military and the health and safety of our service members, it’s unfortunate Republicans demanded the inclusion of a cruel and unnecessary amendment preventing TRICARE from providing gender-affirming care, despite our efforts to strip it from the bill. I’ll continue working to support our service members and their families and fighting to ensure they have access to the care and benefits they need.”
Hirono’s Republican opponent in this year’s election, former state lawmaker and retired Marine officer Bob McDermott, made the fierce debate over children’s gender identity — particularly how it is treated by schools — a key part of his campaign. He also accused Hawaii’s congressional delegation of a lack of action on ongoing problems with environmental contamination underneath what is now Radford High School that was left by the Navy after World War II.
However, Democrats used their narrow lead in the Senate to shoot down other provisions championed by some Republicans, including an effort to block the Pentagon’s current policy of reimbursing troops who travel to seek abortions, a push to eliminate the military’s current climate change mitigation programs and shut down Pentagon diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The bill includes $16.3 million in funding for solar panel-covered parking and electric vehicle charging stations at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The Navy, in particular, has been investing in solar power in the islands, in hopes of diversifying its power grid and making it less dependent on petroleum supply lines that could be disrupted in times of conflict.
The NDAA also calls for commanders to brief lawmakers on the risks related to flooding and other natural disasters that threaten military installations and surrounding civilian infrastructure. Some military officials have warned that sea level rise is already changing how they conduct operations, and that rising temperatures could mean more challenges.
The final version of the NDAA also directs the Army to provide a briefing to lawmakers on Hawaiian Home Lands that surround military testing facilities and the potential of using advanced surveillance technologies to locate munitions and unexploded ordnance.
It encourages the Pentagon to finalize a memorandum of agreement with the state formalizing a long-term commitment to environmental restoration and remediation as well as a research program to determine the total volume and location of any contaminated soil. It requires the office of the Secretary of Defense to step up the eradication of the coconut rhinoceros beetle on military-controlled lands in Hawaii.
The bill also calls for an update to Congress on cultural training and community orientation for service members assigned to Hawaii, Guam and the Marianas.
However, the future of many of these initiatives is up in the air. In January, newly elected Republicans take their seats in what will be a GOP-led House and Senate.
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Army veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has vowed to fire “woke” officers, and said he hopes to end diversity programs and most environmental programs the military currently has in place.
