WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Derrick Van Orden (WI-03), voted in favor of the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The FY24 NDAA authorizes funding for the United States Department of Defense and serves as the legislative guide for the military for the fiscal year.
Following his vote to pass the FY24 NDAA, Congressman Van Orden stated:
“As a United States Navy SEAL veteran with multiple combat tours, I know firsthand the threats our nation faces from our adversaries around the world. Ensuring our military is adequately funded and appropriately focused on completing its missions is essential to the safety and security of the United States and our allies. The FY24 NDAA includes incredible wins for our military capabilities and servicemembers, including the largest pay raise for servicemembers in over 20 years, and provides our men and women of the Armed Forces with the tools they need to keep pace with the unprecedented challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
“Even with these great provisions, I very reluctantly voted for the NDAA due to the inclusion of a clean extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FBI is responsible for over 278,000 individual abuses of this section to the detriment of Americans’ civil liberties, and I am adamant in my efforts when we return to Washington in 2024 to make the necessary reforms to FISA to prevent further misuse of national surveillance capabilities. If these reforms are not implemented, I will not be voting to reauthorize it in April 2024.
“We know the world is safer with a strong U.S. military. While I have apprehensions with certain elements of this bill, I cannot put our nation’s security and military readiness at risk.”
The FY24 NDAA includes many key provisions for the United States military and our servicemembers such as:
- A 5.2% increase in servicemember basic pay, the largest pay raise in over 20 years.
- Expanding mental health counseling services for servicemembers transitioning to the private sector.
- Prohibiting the Department of Defense (DoD) from contracting with any CCP-owned or controlled company operating in the U.S.
- Creates a Special Inspector General to overall all U.S. security assistance to Ukraine to thoroughly investigate any instance of waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or diversion of weapons.
