Congressional conferees released the negotiated conference report for the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last week. The House passed the $847 billion measure by a vote of 350-80, and we expect the Senate to approve it and President Biden to sign it into law.

FMA supports the bill, which includes $817 billion for the Defense Department and approximately $30 billion to fund nuclear activities in the Department of Energy. The NDAA, which has passed every year for more than sixty years, provides the blueprint for how funds will be allocated within the DOD. This year’s NDAA includes a 4.6 percent pay raise for both service members and the agency’s civilian workforce.

However, FMA was disappointed that language to prevent a return of Schedule F, which was approved in the House-passed version of the bill, was not maintained in the final conference report. The NDAA was seen as one of the best opportunities to block the misguided proposal from returning under a future administration. FMA will work in the 118^th Congress to protect America’s civil service system from future attempts to create broad exceptions to the competitive civil service.