WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today praised full Senate passage of the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (FY 24 NDAA). The legislation, which Wicker led as the highest-ranking Senate Armed Services Committee Republican, defines defense investments and priorities for the years ahead. The bill included a range of projects supporting Mississippi’s role in the national defense enterprise.

“The United States faces the most complex and dangerous global security situation since World War II. Senate passage of this legislation sends a strong message to our adversaries that the U.S. supports national defense and our service members,” Wicker said. “This year’s bill would bring even more momentum to the defense workforce in Mississippi, and it would support the shipyards, airfields, munitions plants, and educational institutions that make our state a leader in defense innovation.” 

Wicker also highlighted several major conservative victories in the legislation. The Senate-passed NDAA includes his MERIT Act, which is designed to target the DEI agenda at the Department of Defense (DOD), and his FINISH IT Act, which would force the DOD to allow millions of dollars of unused border wall panels already owned by the U.S. government to be used to extend the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Among other provisions, the Senate’s defense proposal also contains several other Wicker priorities, including language that would:

• Provide significant resources to ensure the United States military can prevail against adversaries in multiple theaters, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
• Codify a Wicker proposal to take on unaccountable Biden bureaucrats at the Pentagon by slashing pay for DEI personnel.
• Take care of our troops and help the DOD stay competitive with the private sector by providing for a 5.2 percent pay raise.
• Support a Wicker proposal to expand JROTC programming by requiring the operation of 3,400-4,000 units nationwide, reforming oversight authorities, and revising instructor pay scales.
• Prioritize stability and consistent demand signals for the defense workforce by authorizing block buys and multiyear contracting authority as a tool to improve industrial base stability for a range of critical programs, including munitions.
• Direct a review of the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) procedures following a significant failure in tracking and destroying the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the continental United States. 
• Require a DOD strategy to counter fentanyl trafficking after another record year in drug trafficking at the southern border. 

The legislation also included many provisions beneficial to Mississippi. Among other things, those provisions entail the following:

Gulf Coast

• Authorizes more than $1.8 billion in funding to procure the San Antonio-class Amphibious warship, LPD-33, which would be constructed by Huntington Ingalls in Pascagoula.
• Adds $72 million for the procurement of another APL-67 class of berthing barge, which would constructed at Bollinger Mississippi in Pascagoula.
• Boosts Columbia-class submarine full-scale shaft procurement at Seemann Composites in Gulfport.
• Secures $6 million for continued operation of the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS) in Hancock County.
• Includes provisions to boost commercial competition in the National Security Space Launch program that would allow providers based in Mississippi to compete.

Pine Belt

• Urges the Office of Naval Research to partner with public universities on optoelectronic technology related to solar cells. Research on this matter is already being conducted at the University of Southern Mississippi and would secure microelectronic manufacturing jobs in the state.
• Authorizes $22 million for rail loading capacity and railcar storage improvements at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg.
• Authorizes another $5.4 million to complete a Maneuver Area Training Equipment site at Camp Shelby.

Central Mississippi

• Adds $8 million to construct a fire and crash rescue site for the 172nd Air Wing at the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers airport in Jackson.
• Adds $3 million in funding to support research on pavement repair materials for military missions, affecting the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg.
• Includes language to accelerate Pentagon efforts to partner with industry on bioprocessing for rare earths and critical minerals, supporting existing work at ERDC in Vicksburg.

North Mississippi

• Authorizes $22 million for the construction of a combat readiness center for the MS Army National Guard in Southaven.
• Authorizes $30 million to begin work on a ground-based training system facility for T-7A aircraft at Columbus Air Force Base.   
• Adds $9.5 million for a T-7A Unit Maintenance Training Facility at Columbus Air Force Base.
• Boosts military housing programs at Columbus Air Force Base by $65 million.
• Authorizes $5 million in funding to support artificial intelligence and machine learning applications to tactical warfare, supporting work being done in Starkville, in consultation with Mississippi State University.
• Prohibits retirement of T-1A training aircraft until an alternative can be established at Columbus Air Force Base, protecting 200 jobs on site.
• Mandates a Pentagon report evaluating the long-term sustainment, research and development, and procurement plan for (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) MRAP vehicles, which are built by Navistar Defense in West Point.