SE Connecticut News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On June 22, Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, voted to advance the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act out of the House Armed Services Committee. The Committee-passed NDAA includes new forms of support for American servicemembers and their families and authorizes continued support for a historic amount of shipbuilding and submarine procurement and research efforts.

Importantly, the bill includes a Courtney-authored provision to extend health care coverage for guard and reserve personnel in honor of Bolton Army Reservist, Michael Clark. Today’s committee passage of the Sergeant First Class Michael Clark TRICARE Reserve Parity Act is a critical first step in the process of getting this provision signed into law.

“The Committee-passed NDAA is the result of a careful, months-long assessment of our national security needs and the increasingly challenging global security environment. We worked together as a committee to build on the President’s budget request and advance a bill which delivers results for America’s servicemembers,” Courtney said. “As Ranking Member on the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, I helped secure historic investments in shipbuilding and the submarine industrial base. This funding is critical to meeting Navy fleet requirements and clearing the pathway to help fulfil the trilateral AUKUS agreement. At a time when division and partisanship continue to be the prevailing narratives around Congress, the House Armed Services has once again proved itself to be a healthy corner of cooperation.” “For eastern Connecticut, the FY24 NDAA bill will help maintain our region’s role as the submarine capitol of the world and strengthen our entire defense industrial base. It authorizes full funding for both the Virginia-class and Columbia-class programs – and provides the Navy with the authority to exceed the two-per-year build rate for Virginia-class submarines. That’s coupled with continued, steady investments in submarine suppliers, shipyard infrastructure, and workforce development initiatives – including eastern Connecticut’s Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative,” Courtney continued. “The positive trajectory of shipbuilding and eastern Connecticut’s workforce was made clear last weekend at the christening of the future USS IOWA (SSN 797). I’m glad we were able to pass a bipartisan FY24 NDAA that will sustain that momentum and build on our region’s thriving workforce ecosystem.”

The bill passed out of Committee 58-1.

To read more about the priorities Rep. Courtney secured to support eastern Connecticut, click here.

To read more about the priorities Rep. Courtney secured to support our seapower capabilities, click here.

To read Rep. Courtney’s opening statement at the markup, click here.

Original source can be found here.