Huffman votes against Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act

May 20, 2016

This week, North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman voted against H.R. 4909, the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act on the House floor.

“This year’s defense authorization bill would do real harm to many Americans while playing budget games that jeopardize our men and women in uniform,” Huffman said in the release. “It is unacceptable that this bill enables defense contractors to discriminate against LGBT employees and prevents the implementation of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order.

“Furthermore, instead of budgeting the amounts needed to defend our country, the legislation actually moves funds to costly programs not requested by the Department of Defense. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to develop smarter defense bills in the future.”

The release outlines several provisions in the bill that Huffman opposed including an attempt to skirt the defense budget caps and create a “funding cliff,” requiring additional funding transfers next year by reducing Overseas Contingency Operation funds, extending Guantanamo Bay’s operations, enabling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender discrimination with taxpayer funds, weakening the framework for developing alternative fuels in the future, limiting fund availability for accelerating nuclear weapons dismantlement and a number of stipulations that would roll back Endangered Species Act protections.

H.R. 4909 passed the House in a 277 to 147 vote and now heads to a Conference Committee to be reconciled with the Senate’s version of the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act later this year.


Source: By The Times-Standard