The US House voted 377-48 to approve a new National Defense Authorization Act. The ‘troops’ get a 3.1% raise. It allows some transfer of available defense funding for border security priorities. And it creates a new branch of the American Military. The US Space Force.
The service will be headed by a Chief of Space Operations, similar to how the U.S. Navy is headed by a Chief of Naval Operations and consist of “the space forces and such assets as may be organic therein.” That’s pretty ambiguous language but probably means most of the Air Force’s space assets, from satellite launching facilities like Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to spacecraft ground control bases like Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. It’ll also include america’s network of GPS satellites, the X-37B spaceplane, and other military space assets. The Space Force will also likely strip away a smaller number of assets and personnel from the U.S. Army and Navy.
Wow! All of our priorities have made it into the final NDAA: Pay Raise for our Troops, Rebuilding our Military, Paid Parental Leave, Border Security, and Space Force! Congress – don’t delay this anymore! I will sign this historic defense legislation immediately!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2019
The NDAA includes a lot of other changes including, a repeal of the widow’s tax. “[A] widely unpopular offset in military survivor benefits offered by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments.”
One provision that probably hooked a lot of Democrats into the other compromises was 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all Federal workers.
Another change “would permit the Defense secretary to allow, settle and pay malpractice claims against military health to the entire federal workforce.”
The cost out of the House, the Senate still needs to pass this version, is over 700 billion, and we’ve no reason to believe that will change unless it goes up. Very little goes down when it gets to the Senate. There is also no clear picture of how much the Space Force will cost, even though it is essentially a reallocation or realignment of existing assets or resources. More would be my guess.
But it sounds cool. And now everyone can get back to prattling on about Reagan Era Star Wars concerns and the demilitarization of space as if that wasn’t inevitable.
Exit Question; How many young men can’t wait to tell a girl in a bar that they work for the US Space Force? Or a girl to a girl in a bar, for that matter?
And yes, Popular Mechanics spelled America with a small ‘a.’
