Dear Friend,

Welcome back to our deep-dive policy newsletters! This week, I’m explaining the NDAA and why this legislation is so important for our military community in San Diego.

Every year, Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act or the NDAA. This agreement sets our defense policies and funding limits for the year; after that, the Appropriations Committee can pass a budget that’s no higher than the limit we set in the NDAA. I’m the only San Diego representative on the House Armed Services Committee – so the NDAA is one of my biggest opportunities to bring home wins for our military community – especially because this is one of the few must-pass bills in Congress.

Last week, our committee marked up the NDAA, which means we reviewed the Chairman’s base proposal and made amendments to it. Usually, this process starts at 10am and goes until 1am or 2am, but this year, we were lucky and it only lasted 12 hours. 

During this process, I fought to secure over three dozen priorities for San Diego’s military community – from improving military child care and housing to better aligning our defense policies with our foreign policy goals.

I’m so proud of my wins for San Diego’s military community in this year’s NDAA – and you can learn more about everything I secured here. In a few weeks, the House will vote to (hopefully) pass the NDAA. Simultaneously, the Senate Armed Services Committee will mark up their version of the NDAA and pass it through their chamber. Then, we’ll come together to reconcile the two versions of the NDAA and pass one final version through both chambers that will go to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

So, there’s a lot of work left to do. I will continue working to improve the quality of life for our military families, live up to our values in our defense policies, ensure military readiness, and so much more. And I won’t stop fighting until our service members and military have all the tools they need to succeed.

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