Rep. Boebert Votes to Support Our Troops

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert voted in favor of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The FY25 NDAA includes enormous wins for national security and our troops. This bill takes important steps to return the Department of Defense (DoD) to its fundamental mission, strengthening military readiness, improving the lethality of our armed forces, and providing crucial support to our men and women in uniform. The bill also included three of Congresswoman Boebert’s amendments to stand with our ally Israel, fight back against the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, and prevent woke ideology from infiltrating our armed forces.

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) said, "America's national security is at risk from numerous threats including Biden's open-border and foreign adversaries like China. As a result, providing for the the common defense and fulfilling our Article 1, Section 8 duties is more important than ever. Congress must ensure that our nation’s most precious resource, its sons and daughters that answered the call of duty, have the best chance to come home to their families and have the necessary resources to accomplish their missions. Today, I voted to strengthen our national security, deter our adversaries, reduce healthcare wait times for our men and women in uniform, put an end to the far left’s efforts to inject wokeness into our military, and to support our troops that fight every day to preserve the liberties and freedoms that are the foundation of our Constitutional Republic." 

Background:

Congresswoman Boebert voted for the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, and it passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan vote of 217-199. 

Congresswoman Boebert's three amendments that passed the House and were attached to the bill include:

Boebert (R-CO) – Amendment No. 4 – Prohibits DoD from contracting with entities that are engaged in a boycott of the state of Israel.

This amendment was passed via a unanimous, bipartisan voice vote.

Boebert (R-CO) – Amendment No. 48 – Prohibition on federal funding for the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group or implement any recommendations from the group  

This amendment was passed with a recorded vote of 215-206.

Boebert (R-CO) – Amendment No. 66 – Require DoD to report on institutions of higher education that host Confucius Institutes that have received DoD funding.

This amendment was passed via a unanimous, bipartisan voice vote.

Background Courtesy of the House Armed Services Committee:

The FY25 NDAA focuses resources on improving the lives of our servicemembers, and their families, who sacrifice so much to protect our nation. It takes important steps to address the security threats America faces from adversaries including China, Iran, and foreign terrorist organizations. Critically, it supports the continued modernization of our nuclear deterrence, invests in our naval fleet, boosts innovation, and revitalizes our defense industrial base.

Fully funds our national defense while cutting costs and improving efficiency by: 

• Authorizing $895.2 billion for national defense discretionary programs, an increase of $9 billion over the FY24 enacted level, and in line with the spending level set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
• Saving taxpayers $30 billion by cutting inefficient programs, obsolete weapons systems, and unnecessary Pentagon bureaucracy.

Improves servicemember quality of life to address military recruitment, retention, and readiness by:

•  Authorizing a 19.5% pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers and supports a 4.5% pay raise for all other servicemembers.
• Ensuring access to medical care, including mental health services and specialty providers.
• Increasing access to childcare by authorizing $204 million for construction of new childcare centers.
• Supporting military spouses by making it easier to find and maintain employment.

The FY24 NDAA (P.L. 118-311) banned critical race theory in the military, gutted DEI at the Department of Defense (DoD), and included the Parents Bill of Rights to ensure military parents’ right to review curriculum, meet with teachers, and provide consent before any medical exams or screenings at school. The FY25 bill builds on those gains to combat the Biden Administration’s radical, woke ideology and restores the focus of our military on lethality by:

• Requiring merit-based promotions.
• Ending affirmative action at service academies.
• Prohibiting DoD from establishing or maintaining any office or committee charged with recommending or implementing DEI policies at DoD schools.
• Prohibiting DoD from contracting with advertising firms like NewsGuard that blacklist conservative new sources.
• Preventing a military Green New Deal.

Deters Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aggression by:

• Extending the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to enhance U.S. deterrence and defense posture in the Indo-Pacific region and authorizes over $650 million in INDOPACOM Commander priorities left unfunded in the Biden budget.
• Increasing funding for innovative new technologies needed to deter the CCP, including hypersonics and AI.
• Preventing Chinese espionage by prohibiting contracting with the subsidiaries of any Chinese civil-military companies to include any subsidiaries, the sharing of sensitive missile defense information with China, and Chinese nationals from being admitted to nuclear facilities
• Bolstering Taiwan’s defense and supports our Indo-Pacific allies and partners.

Increases oversight and requires accountability from the Biden Administration by:

• Ensuring the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter meets performance requirements.
• Cracking down on contractor waste by cutting over $4.3 billion in weapons programs that have not met development milestones or are experiencing excessive cost growth.
• Enhancing congressional oversight of DoD programs.

Improves military readiness, strengthens our industrial base, and supports the deployment of innovative and new technologies to ensure our warfighters are prepared for whatever lies ahead by:

• Blocking the Biden Administration’s plan to reduce the number of U.S. Special Forces.
• Countering adversarial drone warfare through the establishment of a Drone Corps as a basic branch of the Army.
• Providing certainty for the Defense Industrial Base, including the establishment of acquisition thresholds for American made batteries.
• Blocking the Biden Administration’s request to retire two battle force ships with remaining service life, in addition to certain aircraft.

Provides unprecedented levels of support for, our ally, Israel, and the resources necessary to counter our adversaries by:

• Authorizing full funding for joint U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense programs (Iron Dome, Arrow, David’s Sling).
• Requiring DoD to asses pre-launch missile defeat capabilities to eliminate missile threats from Iran and their terrorist proxies.
• Prohibiting DoD from providing security assistance funding to the Taliban or Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
• Extending the prohibition on closing Guantanamo Bay and moving terrorists to prisons in the U.S.

Strengthens our nuclear posture, improves missile defense, and accelerates delivery of space capabilities by:

• Fully funding modernization of the nuclear triad and invests in nuclear sea-launched cruise missiles.
• Continuing support for investments in innovative commercial space solutions that would increase our capacity and resilience in space.

Continues DoD support of law enforcement operations along our southwest and maritime borders by:

• Fully funding deployment of National Guard troops at the southwest border.
• Prohibiting DoD from using disaster and humanitarian relief funds to house refugees in the U.S.
• Increasing funding by $20 million for DoD counternarcotics activities.