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President’s Budget
President Biden released the FY23 President’s Budget on March 28th, 2022, with most budget supporting documents not being released until late April. The President’s budget requests $773.0 billion in spending for the Department of Defense. This is an increase of 5.75%, or $44.5 billion, above FY22 enacted levels. The late release of the President’s Budget was due, in-part, to the extremely late FY22 appropriations legislation in which the federal government operated under a continuing resolution for the first six months of FY22. This has caused a cascading effect on the rest of the cycle, delaying normal FY23 NDAA and appropriations processes.
NDAA
House Armed Services Committee’s sub-committees have begun marking-up H.R.7900 FY23 National Defense Authorization Act. The full committee mark-up is expected to start on June 22nd, 2022. The Senate Armed Services Committee has announced sub-committees will begin marking up their version of the NDAA on the week of June 13th, 2022.
S.1605 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 was signed into law on December 27th, 2021, authorizing DoD activities, programs, and defense related programs for FY22. This legislation eliminates the Overseas Contingency Operations Account from the DoD budget. The NDAA fully authorized all unfunded priorities requested by the Chief, National Guard Bureau and authorizes special incentive and bonus pay parity for the Guard and Reserve.
Appropriations
Both houses of Congress continue to work on FY23 appropriations, holding posture hearings with Service Secretaries, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combatant Commanders. Congress is expected to work under a $1.6 trillion discretionary budget ceiling as negotiations continue in determining top-lines for defense and non-defense budgets. House appropriators are expected to start their subcommittee mark-ups during the week of June 13th, 2022. Senate appropriators are expected to start the mark-up process later this summer.
H.R.2471 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 was signed into law on March 11th, 2022, fully funding the federal government through the end of the current Fiscal Year. The compromise package ends the nearly six-month stalemate between the House and the Senate in which the government has been funded by continuing resolutions. This budget also marks a major shift in how the Department of Defense pays for contingency operations by replacing the Overseas Contingency Operations account with two new accounts that fall under the department’s base budget.
Zero-Cost TRICARE
H.R.3512, Healthcare for our Troops Act, would provide zero-cost TRICARE Reserve Select and dental coverage for all members of the Reserve Component and authorizes TRS eligibility for servicemembers who are federal employees in their civilian capacity. Initial CBO scores estimate this bill to cost $718 million a year. The cost savings of this bill due to streamlining medical spending has yet to be calculated. This remains a top priority for NGAUS. There is no Senate companion bill.
Other Legislation
H.R.1836/S.2644 Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act provides GI Bill education benefits parity between the Active and Reserve Components.
H.R.7837/S.4272 National Guard Promotion Improvement Act requires service secretaries to backdate date of rank and provides backpay and provides Congressional oversight and reviews FEDREC process to decrease delays.
H.R.5112/S.4179 Space National Guard Establishment Act creates a Space National Guard and establishes it as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Space Force.
H.R.1854/S.1178 RECRUIT Act authorizes small business an additional tax credit for employing members of the Guard and Reserve.
S.3215 USACE Military Personnel Augmentation Act of 2021 expands USACE eligibility to members of the Guard and Reserve, Warrant Officers, and non-commissioned officers.
