IFPTE Requests Yes Vote for NDAA Ahead of Passage
Before the Senate voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, IFPTE sent letter urging lawmakers pass the bill and highlighting key items of importance to IFPTE members included in the bill, including language reversing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) failed two-year civilian probationary period in favor of a one-year probationary period.
The Senate passed the NDAA for FY2022 by a vote of 88 to 11 on Wednesday. The House passed the bill on December 7th by a vote of 363 to 70.
The NDAA included IFPTE-requested language that allows overtime pay for Navy employees working on vessels outside the continental U.S., requires the DOD’s Office of Inspector General to report the wage and career impact created by the Navy’s temporary pause of the Accelerated Promotion Program in 2016, and includes provisions to provide training to health professionals treating veterans exposed to burn pits.
IFPTE’s also expressed disappointment with the absence of other important items, including the House passed NDAA provision, “to strengthen Buy America domestic content requirements for defense acquisition programs.” IFPTE’s letter mentions to other key priorities that were partially addressed but leave room for improvement: strong language that supports Veterans Preference in the DOD reductions-in-force process for civil servants and failure to include provisions that require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide “documentation of and presumption of illness for veterans exposed to burn pits.”
Several priorities that IFPTE has advocated for were removed from or were not considered for the NDAA as Members of the House of Representatives and Senate conferenced to produce a compromise text. IFPTE is committed to advocating for our members working in the federal sector and in DOD, in the private sector defense industrial base, and for veterans in next year’s NDAA for FY2023.
Read a PDF of IFPTE’s letter to Senate urging passage of the NDAA for FY2022 here.
Read previous IFPTE letters on the NDAA for FY2022 here: