The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the primary legislation responsible for setting policies at the Department of Defense (DoD). Since its inception, the NDAA has focused on its fundamental mission of safeguarding our nation's security. But Congress’s final version of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) has gone the wrong direction. Instead of supporting our troops and equipping our armed forces, it undermines the integrity of our military. For this reason, Heritage Action opposes the final version of the 2024 NDAA and will include the vote in the House and Senate on our legislative scorecard.

For the past few years, the DoD has been pumping a political agenda into the military that divides, distracts, and disarms our service members by facilitating abortions, enabling sex reassignment surgeries, and actively promoting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Americans support the military, but the FY24 NDAA seriously misses the mark. Disappointingly, the final conference report of the NDAA — negotiated between the House and the Senate — has been stripped of many critical corrections needed to remove Biden’s political culture war from our military.This hampers our armed forces ability to effectively deter threats and defend our nation, and leaves the military vulnerable to further politicization. Biden’s politicization of the military has led to huge shortfalls in recruiting and retention.

The Pentagon is not an incubator for Biden’s social experiments that neglect those who safeguard our national security. The 2024 NDAA also fails to adequately address the rising threat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and attaches a short-term extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without the necessary reforms to curb its rampant abuse by government employees to spy on innocent Americans.

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