Amidst Trump’s War in Iran, Elfreth Votes No on Annual Defense Bill

WASHINGTON, DC - Yesterday, Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth (MD-03), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, voted against the bipartisan FY27 National Defense Authorization Act in Committee. After her vote, the Congresswoman released the following statement:

"Following a year-long tour of every military installation in Maryland, countless meetings with servicemembers, local partners, military alliances, and Pentagon officials, and 14 hours of debate spent fighting to improve this bill, I ultimately voted against advancing the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act out of the Armed Services Committee.

"I was glad to see this year's NDAA deliver a much-needed pay raise to our servicemembers, billions of dollars to support our long-standing global alliances, collective bargaining protections for our civilian DoD employees, the removal of Confederate names of bases, and investments in bipartisan priorities like research and energy resilience. I spent hours crafting and advancing provisions in the legislation to solve housing shortages, expand child care access, modernize shipbuilding, improve the quality of health care, expand critical research to meet our readiness goals, and deliver solutions that make it easier for our servicemembers and their families to not just get by, but thrive, as they serve our country.

"Despite these significant wins, there was simply too much left undone in this bill. As this President continues his unjustified war in Iran, putting servicemembers at risk and causing gas prices to skyrocket, the American people are looking to Congress for real accountability. I could not in good conscience vote to hand the Department of Defense over a trillion dollars - an unprecedented budget - to continue this undefined and unsustainable war as families back home struggle to make ends meet. To provide these much-needed guardrails and oversight on Secretary Hegseth and the Department of Defense, I will continue to work with my colleagues to strengthen and improve this legislation as it moves to the House floor."

23 of Elfreth's provisions were included in the base text of the NDAA, and Elfreth successfully introduced 18 provisions as amendments. The 40+ Elfreth-led priorities in the NDAA include:

Maryland Installation Priorities:

• Gives the Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Fort Meade degree-granting authority.
• Increases the Laboratory and Range/Test Facility Infrastructure Reform threshold to $15 million and the Minor Military Construction threshold to $12 million, allowing installations and research facilities, like Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Patuxent River, and Carderock, to complete larger facility upgrades without requiring lengthy Congressional authorization.
• Supports investment at Navy Air Station Pax River by providing the Navy the authority to work with private industry on the development of a new anechoic chamber.
• Addresses increases launches at Cape Canaveral and supports NASA's Wallops Flight Facility by ensuring federal funds are spent at Wallops and requiring a DoD report on its investments at Wallops.

Strengthens Installation Resilience and Supply Chains:

• Delivers $694.3 million to the Energy Resilience & Conservation Investment Program (ERCIP) to support energy resilience on military bases.
• Creates the Military Installation Stormwater Project Acceleration Program to ensure the Department of Defense is reducing pollution runoff from facilities consistent with state-based watershed implementation plans.
• Increases Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) funding to $30 million, allowing military services and partners to develop off-base natural infrastructure solutions to protect critical infrastructure, military personnel, and training operations from the impacts of climate change.
• Directs a review of U.S. dependence on China for critical mineral supply chains and the associated national security risks.

Lowers Costs and Supporting Our Servicemembers and Their Families:

• Creates housing reporting requirements for bases with major enlisted housing shortages, like Fort Meade.
• Provides $70 million for Impact Aid and Impact Aid for Children with Disabilities to assist 103 school districts nationwide that educate 200,000 children of military personnel.
• Authorizes a report on the impact of rising energy costs on servicemembers, particularly junior enlisted officers.
• Expands commissary access for DODEA and Child Development Center employees.

Supports Women and Families in the Military:

• Requires the Department of Defense to publish a department-wide best practice guide on Family Child Care to help expand child care opportunities on base.
• Helps solve the child care workforce crisis by making it easier for employees of Child Development Centers to transfer between service branches.
• Requires a study on medically complex children's access to care on base. Currently, TRICARE does not, and cannot on its own, adequately provide care management for the sickest, most vulnerable children of military families.
• Delivers $10 million to procure and implement a modern data management system for Harmful Behavior Prevention programs, which address suicide, sexual assault, harassment, domestic abuse, and child abuse in the military.

Advances Health Care & Medical Research:

• Develops a pilot program for drone delivery of organs and medical equipment to patients at trauma centers and care on the battlefield with the use of drones.
• Supports the advancement of battlefield wound care and management capabilities to modernize combat casualty care, improve traumatic injury survival rates, and ensure the long-term health and readiness of servicemembers.

Invests in Shipbuilding:

• Supports University Affiliated Research Centers, like Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and shipbuilding by creating an advanced and additive manufacturing program to support the Navy.
• Requires coordination between the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard on developing a shipbuilding workforce and addressing infrastructure needs for the first time.
• Requires a report from the Navy on the needs and gaps of Naval architects and their impact on U.S. shipbuilding.

Advances Cybersecurity:

• Implements a Cyber Workforce Framework with a standardized, mission-aligned approach to managing and developing the cyber workforce.
• Invests $4 million in the Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity expansion to extend cybersecurity monitoring and vulnerability protection to hundreds of additional defense contractors, helping safeguard Maryland's defense industrial base from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

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