June 12, 2024

Warren Announces Key Priorities for FY 2025 NDAA

Washington, D.C. – As the Senate begins markup on the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, announced her key priorities.

Senator Warren is pushing for provisions to protect servicemembers from blast overpressure risks, limit the influence of contractors on the military, close loopholes in acquisition laws, increase oversight on the Defense budgetary process, require reporting from retired service members working on behalf of foreign government, ensure military projects comply with public health standards, provide quality housing for military members and their families, and require the Defense Department to adapt its operations to address climate change. 

Specifically, Senator Warren is calling for the following provisions to be included in the FY 2025 NDAA:

  • The Blast Overpressure Safety Act, a comprehensive, bipartisan, and bicameral bill to help mitigate and protect service members from blast overpressure by expanding efforts to understand and track exposure, providing treatment to service members, increasing transparency around blast overpressure, and holding DoD accountable for addressing this serious issue. 
  • The Department of Defense (DoD) Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, to limit the influence of contractors on the military, constrain foreign influence on retired senior military officers, and assert greater transparency over contractors and their interaction with DoD.
  • The Stop Price Gouging the Military Act, a bipartisan bill that would close loopholes in current acquisition laws, tie financial incentives for contractors to performance, and provide the Department of Defense (DoD) the information necessary to prevent future rip-offs.
  • The Streamline Pentagon Spending Act, bipartisan and bicameral legislation to repeal statutory requirements to provide unfunded priorities lists, reduce wasteful reporting burdens, and enhance civilian oversight over the budgetary process.
  • The Retired Officers Conflict of Interest Act, a bipartisan and bicameral bill that would require public reporting on retired service members working on behalf of foreign governments and creates civil penalties if they break the law.
  • Halting funding for the machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completes its review of the safety of the project. In April 2023 the EPA issued a report finding the proposed range could create significant hazards to public health following an April 2021 request from Senator Warren, Markey, and Representative Keating asking for a review of the project.
  • The Military Housing Oversight and Service Member Protection Act, a comprehensive bill to protect military families who are living in privatized military housing from unsafe and unsanitary living conditions.
  • The Department of Defense Climate Resiliency and Readiness Act, a bicameral bill to require the Department of Defense (DoD) to adapt its infrastructure and operations to address climate change and improve energy efficiency in order to strengthen military readiness.
  • The Protecting Military Service Members’ Data Act of 2023, a bipartisan bill that would protect the data of U.S. service members by preventing data brokers from selling lists of military personnel to adversarial nations including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

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