The new defense bill for NDAA FY2024 which just narrowly passed the House, vote of 219 to 210 with nearly unanimous Republican support, once again ups the budget for "biological threat reduction," the US military's plausibly deniable bio-weapons program. This time, by about $3M. Republicans loaded the measure with a raft of social policy provisions — including limits on abortions, Ending wokeness in the military, gender transition procedures and diversity training — that have little chance of surviving in the Senate.
![[Image: 6XTKcJG.png]](https://i.imgur.com/6XTKcJG.png)
The bill does contain a prohibition on using defense funds for gain-of-function research, which is good. Although GOF can of course still be funded by other means, and I'm highly skeptical that the military actually informs Congress of all the frankenstein bio-defense research it does here and abroad.
![[Image: 223LcDC.png]](https://i.imgur.com/223LcDC.png)
FY24 NDAA Resources
Direct PDF link to H.R. 2670, THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024
Some excerpts on Ending Wokeness in the military wishlist:
![[Image: cvk2Mce.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/cvk2Mce.jpg)
Refer to Ending Wokeness in the Military (PDF) for more.
The bill does contain a prohibition on using defense funds for gain-of-function research, which is good. Although GOF can of course still be funded by other means, and I'm highly skeptical that the military actually informs Congress of all the frankenstein bio-defense research it does here and abroad.
FY24 NDAA Resources
Direct PDF link to H.R. 2670, THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024
Some excerpts on Ending Wokeness in the military wishlist:
Quote:Banning Critical Race Theory (CRT)
- Prohibits funding for the teaching of CRT in the military.
- Prohibits funds for any DoD advisory committee dealing with CRT.
- Requires DoD to report to Congress on how much time and taxpayer dollars have been wasted on CRT training.
Ending DEI Overreach
- Repeals the DoD’s unnecessary Chief Diversity Officer.
- Guts the Pentagon’s DEI bureaucracy by prohibiting the DOD from paying anyone whose job it is to carry out DEI programs more than $92,000 (GS-10 level).
- Requires the Secretary to assess and validate the need for every position in the DEI bureaucracy.
- Eliminates funding for the DoD’s politically biased Countering Extremism Working Group.
- Prohibits DoD from contracting with NewsGuard Technologies or similar advertising firms that blacklist conservative news sources.
- Prohibits funds for any DoD advisory committee dealing with race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or social justice.
Prohibits Drag Shows
- Eliminates funding for drag shows, Drag Queen Story Hours, or similar events.
- Halts the Navy’s promotion of a drag queen as a “Digital Ambassador”.
Protecting Parents Rights
- Includes a Parents Bill of Rights to ensure parents of children in DoD schools have the right to review curriculum, books, and instructional materials; meet with teachers; and provide consent before any medical exams or screenings by the school.
Preventing a Military Green New Deal
- Does NOT authorize climate change programs.
- Blocks DoD from requiring defense contractors to document the impact their weapons systems have on
- greenhouse gas emissions and submit plans to reduce emissions.
- Ensures military ranges in the Gulf of Mexico remain open for critical training.
- Cuts funding for questionable combat vehicle electrification research programs.
- Prohibits funds for DoD advisory committees dealing with environmental justice.
Countering China's Malign Influence
- Increases funding for military information operations assistance to Indo-Pacific allies to counter Chinese influence operations.
- Provides a new tool for combatant commanders to rapidly address emergent security needs with foreign partners.
- Authorizes additional funds for U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Southern Command to carry out military education and training aimed at countering
- Chinese influence.
- Requires an assessment of CCP cooperation with Iran on ICBM technology.
- Requires an assessment of CCP presence in the Caribbean and South America
Covid-19 Vaccine Discharges
- Provides a pathway back to the armed forces for service members who refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine
- Includes a 5.2 percent increase in service member pay, the largest pay raise in over two decades
Nuclear Deterrence
- Fully funds the modernization of our nuclear triad.
- Establishes the nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) as an official program of record – rejecting the Biden administration’s request to cancel the program.
- Prohibits the DoD from reducing the number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles below 400 or reducing the responsiveness or alert status of the arsenal.
- Limits the ability of the Biden Administration to retire certain nuclear weapons.
- Invests additional resources in production facilities for nuclear components necessary to reconstitute the nation’s ability to produce nuclear weapons.
- Realigns over $100 million in funding authorized for nonessential activities at the National Nuclear Security Administration to support core nuclear weapons programs.
- Requires DoD to notify Congress of any instance of nuclear cooperation between Russia and China – this follows reports of Russia’s delivery of highly enriched uranium to China.
- Prohibits the administration from sharing information on our nuclear forces with Russia unless Russia resumes sharing the same information with the United States.
Missile Defense
- Removes outdated policy limitations preventing missile defenses from being oriented against threats to the homeland from near-peer adversaries such as China.
- Provides an additional $225 million to accelerate the Glide Phase Interceptor program to defend against hypersonic threats and requires an initial capability to be fielded by 2029.
- Accelerates development of an East Coast missile defense site.
- Provides nearly $200 million in missile defense priorities left unfunded in the Biden budget.
- Accelerates the deployment of advanced radars to track missiles, high-altitude balloons, and other CCP threats to our homeland.
Hypersonic Capabilities
- Requires DoD to develop new additional aerial testing corridors to address shortfalls in hypersonic testing capacity.
- Provides an additional $63 million for hypersonics-related research and development across multiple programs.
- Requires DoD to improve the recruitment and retention of its hypersonics workforce.
Military & Industrial Base Readiness
- Prohibits the decommissioning of 5 battle force ships with years of service life remaining.
- Rejects the Biden Administration’s request to divest certain aircraft including the F-22 and the C-130 to ensure continued air superiority in the near-term.
- Prohibits the DoD from reducing the number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles below 400 or reducing the responsiveness or alert status of the arsenal.
- Limits the ability of the Biden Administration to retire certain nuclear weapons.
- Prohibits the Navy from reducing the operational status of the Expeditionary Fast Transport vessels.
- Increases funding for military exercises.
- Requires the Air Force to maintain sufficient capability, capacity, and proficient aircrews to support geographical combatant commanders' requirements.
- Permanently increases the minor military construction threshold to give the services greater flexibility to build out necessary infrastructure.
- Requires MARAD to establish a working group to assess the size and readiness of the U.S. flag fleet to meet national defense and commercial requirements.
Refer to Ending Wokeness in the Military (PDF) for more.
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." – Thomas Sowell
