NDAA included focus on the Pacific and quality of life for personnel
As the end of the year creeps nearer, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement Act and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2025 has been released.
This is the Conference version, so it has been discussed by the House and Senate of Congress.
Guam specific allocations, as per James C. Moylan, Guam’s delegate to Congress, include $100 million for access roads, an increase of $181 million for missile defense, now at nearly $620 million, and $600 million to repair the Port of Guam’s Glass Breakwater. See https://www.mbjguam.com/milcon-awards-and-other-guam-navy-news of Oct. 14.
Glass Breakwater. From Journal Files.
For service members there is good news. Pay for junior enlisted personnel (E1 to E4) will receive a 14.5% pay rise, 4.5% will be allocated for everybody else.
The act allocates $954 million for housing and facility maintenance and requires DoD to “develop and implement a strategy for public-private partnerships to lease new barracks and unaccompanied housing.” See https://www.mbjguam.com/guam-housing-rfi-looks-meet-buildup-housing-needs of Aug. 27.
Also allocated is $569 million for new housing units, and $1.2 billion to renovate and build new barracks.
The fiscal 2025 NDAA requires DoD to renovate and reuse historic housing in a rapid and cost-efficient manner.
There are also references to other quality of life issues: such as money for schools, daycare, and spouse employment.
The NDAA allocates $15.6 billion ($5.7 billion more than requested) for the “Pacific Deterrence Initiative for the Indo-Pacific region.”
It also authorizes “essential military construction projects and expands logistics capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region,” enhances the ability of the Indo-Pacific commander to build minor MilCon projects, and possibly importantly for Guam, “authorizes limited ship repair in the Indo-Pacific.”
The act also “establishes a program to develop forward advanced manufacturing capability in and for the US Indo-Pacific Command.”mbj
Major military exercises are often assigned as bundled contracts for companies that put the necessary logistics together – to include accommodation and catering services.
Gov. Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero vetoed the nearly $1.4 billion fiscal year 2026 Government of Guam budget bill on Sept. 5, stating that the proposed measure underfunds the Guam Memorial Hospital and provides tax cuts to the “favored few.”
The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Springfield returned to its homeport in Guam on Aug. 31, after completing a routine deployment in the Indo-Pacific, according to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
Due to potential tariffs on the contents of mail to the U.S., and no policy on how any tariff would be levied or paid, various countries are declining to mail parcels to the U.S.
