(WASHINGTON, DC) – The U.S. Senate has passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.
The bill included a a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers and a 4.5 percent pay raise for all other servicemembers, at a time when recruitment is a vital concern.
“The highest Constitutional priority of the Congress every year is to provide for the nation’s defense and our bill this year really secures an amazing, historic pay raise, particularly for our junior enlisted servicemembers,” said Cramer, co-chair of the Senate Defense Modernization Caucus. “And that’s important because we have a recruiting challenge, we need to be able to recruit these people and providing a salary increase goes a long way to both recruit and keep our servicemembers. The NDAA rebuilds our arsenal of democracy which is good for the country and it’s good for our allies, and what’s good for our allies is good for our country. It acknowledges the pivotal role North Dakota plays in our national security as well. While that is secondary to securing freedom around the world, North Dakota plays a very vital role. This bill is a good step, but we need to do a lot more to rebuild our military and project strength to a world yearning for American leadership. Our adversaries need to see that projection of strength as well. I look forward to working with President Trump and his administration in January so we can address America’s most pressing threats from our adversaries, and end this radical woke ideology that’s distracting the Department from its warfighting mission.”
The bill also expands access to mental health services in rural communities.
It also addresses priorities Senator John Hoeven has, which support North Dakota’s growing national defense role.
“As our nation faces new and growing threats, whether from the nuclear ambitions of our adversaries or the misuse of unmanned aircraft, we need to properly equip and support our men and women in uniform. That’s exactly what we’ve worked to accomplish with this year’s defense authorization bill,” said Hoeven. “Importantly, this bill helps keep nuclear modernization in Minot on track, while supporting our efforts for Grand Forks to lead the way in new Counter-UAS technologies and Space Force operations. At the same time, we continue working to strengthen the capabilities of our outstanding Guard members, including by modernizing the Lakota helicopter already flown by the Army National Guard and bringing the Gray Eagle into their operations as well.”
