Press Releases

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) Tuesday voted in the full U.S. House against the current version of the $1.15 trillion Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). 

The annual authorization is considered must-pass legislation, with Congress enacting one every year since fiscal 1962. It is separate from the regular annual appropriations bills that Representative Case helps develop as a member of the House Appropriations Committee; those bills actually direct funding using the NDAA as an authorizing framework.  

“Our National Defense Authorization Act is a critical annual measure that not only authorizes our defense spending for the year, supplementing my Appropriations Committee’s parallel funding responsibilities, but also establishes defense policies, including organization and administration of the Defense Department,” said Case, who serves on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, responsible for all defense and intelligence community funding, and previously served on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, responsible for all funding in those areas.

“While this current version of the FY 2027 NDAA includes many critical Hawai‘i and Indo-Pacific priorities I requested, I regrettably had to vote against it at this stage for various reasons. These included the lack of any Congressional authorization of the Iran war; the insufficiency of any justification for the huge authorized increase in defense spending; the lack of any assurance of adequate Congressional oversight of that spending; and the inclusion of various other proposals not relevant to defense such as the SAVE America Act, which I have separately voted against several other times.”

 Given the significant economic contribution of military construction to Hawai‘i, Case highlighted various projects he advocated for that were included in the NDAA, including: 

·         $507 million to continue building Dry Dock 5 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. 

·         $248 million to continue building the Red Hill Water Treatment Plant. Case provided the initial funding for this effort in FY 2026 through his assignment on the House Appropriations Committee.   

·         $184 million to expand the Ford Island Pacific Warfighting Center at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. 

·         $142 million to make airfield improvements at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.  

·         $90 million for an aircraft maintenance hangar at Wheeler Army Airfield. 

·         $77 million to expand an armory at Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i. 

·         $72 million for water wells and storage tanks at Helemano Military Reservation.  

·         $71 million for a clear well and booster pump at Fort Shafter. 

·         $49 million to upgrade the main gate at Marine Corp Base Hawai‘i.  

·         $34 million at Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i for an air traffic control compound. 

·         $30 million for a fire station at Schofield Barracks.  

·         $26 million for an elevated water tank and distribution lines at Schofield Barracks. 

·         $21 million for a water storage tank Schofield Barracks. 

·         $4 million for a Secure Integration Support Lab on Maui. 

The measure also included three floor amendments (amendments added in full House deliberations) authored by Case that: 

·         Require a study on the potential benefits of establishing a Strategic Infrastructure Partnership Initiative to assist U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) in identifying, developing and implementing dual-use infrastructure projects across the Indo-Pacific. 

·         Require a comprehensive analysis of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) influence and activities within the Freely Associated States and recommending steps to help protect these three Pacific nations. 

·         Direct the Space Force to assess the security, physical, cyber and geopolitical vulnerabilities of commercially owned and operated satellite ground-based nodes located within the Indo-Pacific. Multiple such locations are in Hawai‘i. 

The bill further included several provisions advocated for and supported by Case to continue the military’s investment in Hawai‘i and the Indo-Pacific, including:  

·         Authorizing an additional $2.5 million for the Pacific Disaster Center on Maui.

·         Extending the authority for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. 

·         Formally establishing an Inter-Pacific Air Forces Academy. This existing yet uncodified program focuses on leader-follower self-awareness, enhancing strategic intelligence, cultivating intercultural communication and fostering relationships among the multinational enlisted force. 

·         Requiring a study on recapitalizing the Army’s watercraft fleet and how they will be supported by uncrewed systems. Hawai‘i is the homeport for three Army watercraft. 

·         Directing the military to prioritize the distribution and retention of KC-135 tanker aircraft to Air Force and Air National Guard installations in the Indo-Pacific. Hawai‘i Air National Guard’s 154th Wing currently operates KC-135s out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.  

·         Requiring the military to establish a secure, all-domain, virtual-constructive training environment to support training in the Indo-Pacific. This will help reduce the need to conduct more dangerous live-fire training.  

·         Directing the Navy to evaluate installations that are critical to force generation, deployment and sustainment for USPACOM and what can be done to improve the capacity of naval shipyards, regional maintenance centers, depots, aircraft maintenance facilities and civilian industrial capacity to maintain, repair and rearm ships and aircraft. 

·         Authorizing  $1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative.

·         Authorizing $8.4 billion for two Virginia-class attack submarines. Pearl Harbor is the home of this class of submarine and conducts major maintenance on them at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.  

The bill additionally included several provisions cosponsored by Case, including amendments that:  

·         Direct the Defense Department to conduct base hardening assessments at key logistics nodes and commercial interfaces for major defense installations, which would include locations in Hawai‘i. 

·         Direct the military to inventory, assess and prioritize all military construction and logistics infrastructure projects across the Indo-Pacific to meet USPACOM’s operational requirements. 

·         Extend the requirement to annually assess of Taiwan’s military readiness, regional allied responses and U.S. contingency planning in the face of rising Chinese aggression. 

·         Extend the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative through 2031 and expand it to include unmanned systems. 

·         Mandate a report to Congress on the military’s strategy for developing a resilient and distributed missile tracking system and authorize funds to implement the report’s recommendations. These efforts can be used to help improve the defense of Hawai‘i.  

Finally, the NDAA version included various provisions Case has supported to assist our nation’s servicemembers, including:

·         Directs a 7% pay raise for junior enlisted personnel, a 6% raise for senior enlisted personnel and junior officers, and a 5% raise for senior officers. 

·         Protects the collective bargaining rights of civilian Defense Department employees. 

·          Authorizes over $1.8 billion for new construction of barracks and family housing.

·         Requires an assessment of junior enlisted housing shortfalls and a plan to close housing shortfalls.

·         Authorizes incentive pay for medical officers with doctoral degrees.  

·         Increases the Family Separation Allowance for deployed servicemembers. 

·         Authorizes $226 million to design and build new childcare centers.

·         Authorizes $170 million for new on-base schools. 

·          Authorizes a pilot program to provide grants to expand access to childcare for military families. 

·         Authorizes $50 million in Impact Aid assistance to public schools with military dependent students and an additional $20 million in assistance to local schools teaching children with severe disabilities. 

·         Requires a cost-of-living allowance to eligible servicemembers. The authority is currently optional and only applies to servicemembers assigned to high-cost areas.

The bill passed the House by a vote of 216 to 212 and now heads to the Senate for its consideration. “I am hopeful that, as this critical measure moves further through the legislative process, its serious flaws will be corrected and I will be able to vote yes on the final version, as I have with past NDAAs,” said Case. 

ATTACHMENTS:  

 

1.      The text of the bill is available here.  

2.      The explanatory committee report is available here.  

 

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