Congressman Lamborn Advances Pikes Peak Region Priorities, Passes Key Amendments in FY21 National Defense Authorization Act

Washington D.C.  -  Last night, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 was voted out of committee unanimously, 57-0.  Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Ranking Member of the Readiness Subcommittee, released the following statement:

"For 60 years, the House Armed Services Committee has come together in a bipartisan manner to pass the National Defense Authorization Act. This year was no different.  While I’m not pleased with some of the Democrats’ provisions in the bill and will work to excise them in conference, the overall legislative product represents a tremendous improvement over last year’s bill and reflects true bipartisan support for our servicemen and women and their families.  I was very pleased over 40 provisions and amendments I authored were included, particularly those to strengthen defense communities and defense infrastructure, enhance our national security space infrastructure, focus on and accelerate directed energy programs, authorize directed energy missile defense cooperation between Israel and the U.S., and begins laying the groundwork for next generation missile defense.  This bill is good for Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District and for our nation."

The House Armed Services Committee considered over 470 amendments over the course of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 markup. Congressman Lamborn helped lead the debate against several far-left amendments by the Democrats, and succeeded in stopping them from amending the Insurrection Act and from cutting $1 billion from the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent.

Through advocacy as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee Congressman Lamborn was able to include funding for defense research, next-generation weapons systems, and construction efforts in the Pikes Peak region in excess of $366 million, to include: 

-Four military construction projects in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District totaling over $152.6M:

• The Consolidated Space Operations Facility on Schriever AFB: the next-generation national security space operations center which will further strengthen Colorado Springs’ position as the future home of Space Command;
• A state-of-the-art physical fitness facility and Special Operations Forces tactical equipment maintenance facility on Fort Carson; and 
• The future National Guard Readiness Center on Peterson AFB;
• These projects will bring the total investment of military construction in the Pikes Peak region to over $2.6 billion since Congressman Lamborn has been in office and serving on the Armed Services Committee;

-Increased transparency on the use of PFAS and authorizes $150 million for the research and development of a non-PFAS firefighting agent, and authorization of $1.5 billion for environmental remediation and cleanup at current military installations, formerly utilized defense sites, and installations closed by BRAC;
-Increasing homeland missile defense from cruise missile threats in support of the NORTHCOM warfighters and setting conditions for the establishment of homeland defense “under-layer”; 
-Plans to address DOD’s critical defense microelectronic parts supply, many of which are minted in Colorado Springs;
-Increased funding for missile defense interceptor procurement;
-Increased funding for directed energy missile defense programs;
-Leading the national security space launch policy negotiations;
-The creation of several new national security space policies which will enhance the resiliency of our defense space assets;
-Funding for Commercial Satellite Communication Integration;
-Increased funding for AFSCN Infrastructure Investments;
-Increased funds to support Stryker vehicle lethality upgrades;
-The creation of the Directed Energy Working Group within the DoD to coordinate directed energy programs across the services;
-The authorization of directed energy missile defense co-development agreements between the U.S. and Israel.

The next step for the National Defense Authorization Act is for the bill to be debated on the House floor, later this month.

Contact: Cassandra Sebastian (719) 520-0055