WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Neal Dunn (FL-02) supported final passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which continues to rebuild and strengthen our military. The bipartisan legislation is the military’s annual policy bill that authorizes funding levels for the Department of Defense.

“Our military has been shorted on vital funding over 8 years, leaving our troops with vehicles and weapons that are decades old at a time when technology is leaping forward faster than ever. Today we stepped up to reverse that damage,” said Dr. Dunn. “From supporting new military technologies, weapon systems and machines, to increasing pay for our brave heroes, we are giving certainty to our warfighters. To our military – I promise, we have your back.”

The Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 5515 - John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 fully funds a 2.6% pay raise for troops, improves military readiness through increased funding, and modernizes outdated equipment. It provides additional aircraft, ships, and systems for our warfighters and funds emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, quantum sciences, and hypersonic weapons.

It authorizes funding to accelerate the next step of the Gulf Range Enhancement program, a project to improve test and training data collection on 5th and 6th generation weapons in the Joint Gulf Range Complex. The lack of adequate instrumentation along Florida’s entire Gulf coast restricts many missions to the northern portion of the range. The 96th Test Wing estimates that 80 missions annually are not conducted because of air space and infrastructure congestion. Infrastructure investments in the range increase the value of this already incomparable national asset, which bolsters Florida’s case for extending the oil and gas moratorium in the Eastern Gulf beyond 2023.

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