June 14, 2024

Duckworth Secures Key Priorities, Military IVF Expansion in Committee-Passed NDAA

Other priorities the Senator secured in Committee-passed NDAA will support a strong and ready Total Force, help restore American competitiveness, strengthen ties in Indo-Pacific and improve logistics to bolster readiness

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years and is a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), secured several important provisions in the committee-passed Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that will support our servicemembers, improve medical readiness as well as enhance strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, improve logistics to bolster readiness and continue to restore American competitiveness through improving access to cutting-edge technology. Among her top priorities included by the committee is a historic provision that would expand access to IVF for uniformed servicemembers and military families—a Duckworth-led win that she secured on the same day nearly every single Republican voted against her Right to IVF Act despite their repeated public proclamations in support IVF.

“The brave men and women in uniform who serve our nation at home and abroad deserve to know that our country fully supports them as they and their families sacrifice to defend our country and our Constitution,” said Duckworth. “I’m proud that our committee-passed bill includes a historic expansion of coverage of fertility treatments—including IVF—for certain TRICARE beneficiaries. I’m also proud that it includes several of my provisions to support our servicemembers, improve military readiness, enhance strategic partnerships, and strengthen our national security, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to continue improving this NDAA and ensure Congress passes a strong bill that lets our troops know we have their backs.”

On her provision to expand coverage of IVF and other fertility treatments for beneficiaries of TRICARE—the main healthcare program for uniformed servicemembers—Duckworth said: “Even before I was wounded, I had made the difficult decision to delay building a family because I knew getting pregnant would impact my ability to be an Army aviator—and to advance in the career I loved. Because of the miracle of IVF—and my access to reproductive healthcare through the VA—I’m now a mom to two beautiful girls. The reality is that members of the uniformed services face unique challenges when trying to start or build a family, and studies show that servicemembers and Veterans have higher rates of infertility compared to the general population. I’m so proud my colleagues joined me to expand access to IVF and help more of our uniformed servicemembers have access to the fertility treatment they need to start the families they’ve dreamed of.”

NDAAs authorize funding for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), set our nation’s defense policy and ensure that our servicemembers have the tools they need to defend our nation. Additionally, this year’s committee-passed legislation authorizes funding to support a 4.5 percent pay raise for military members and a 2 percent pay raise for DOD civilian employees while also increasing monthly basic pay for junior enlisted servicemembers in the grades of E-1 through E-3, in addition to the force-wide pay raise.

Additional key Duckworth priorities included in this year’s NDAA would:

Support a Strong and Ready Total Force by:

  • Expanding Coverage of Fertility Treatments for Military Families by providing a historic expansion of coverage of fertility treatments, including IVF, for certain TRICARE beneficiaries. This would assist military families who experience challenges related to natural conception with building their families.
  • Increasing Playground Inclusivity for Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) Families by authorizing a pilot program to build or upgrade inclusive playgrounds at six military installations that directly support EFMP families.
  • Improving Access to Prenatal Care for Military Families by looking at options to establish pregnancy as a qualifying life event, allowing some military healthcare beneficiaries to switch plans at the beginning of a pregnancy if it will allow them better access to care.
  • Ensuring Lovell FHCC's Continued Success by extending for one year the authority of the Joint Medical Facility Demonstration Fund U.S. Treasury account, which serves as the operating account for the Lovell FHCC. The bill also includes language authorizing transfer of funds specifically to Lovell that Duckworth and Senator Durbin worked to secure.
  • Supporting Community Schools and Kids by authorizing an additional $80 million for school districts to receive critical Impact Aid from the DoD, rectifying state and local tax base funding shortfalls due to the presence of federal property in their district.
  • Improving Care for Amputees by encouraging the Department to build upon its progress creating the Limb Loss and Preservation Registry to improve data collection on limb loss and seek better outcomes for patients experiencing limb loss.
  • Increasing Warfighter Readiness and Domestic Footwear Industrial Base by reviewing options to change regulations to ensure combat boots worn by armed forces are entirely manufactured in America.
  • Improving Understanding of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) by encouraging the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to increase investments in medical research and development activities focused on data analytics platforms to support servicemembers with TBIs.
  • Modernizing the Navy's HR System through requesting certification of the lead program office for MyHR modernization and a plan for ensuring data integrity for timely pay, benefits and data reliability for Sailors and Marines.
  • Enhancing Soldier Hearing Protection by encouraging the Army to continue researching and developing advanced hearing protection with new technologies that enhance spatial awareness.

Lead in the Indo-Pacific Region by:

  • Improving Medical Readiness in the Indo-Pacific by establishing a program in the Indo-Pacific to accredit foreign medical facilities to allow DoD-affiliated personnel to access those facilities for patient care where appropriate to do so and creating a medical readiness strategy in the region. This provision is a modified version of Duckworth’ Access to Care for Overseas Troops Act.
  • When introducing her standalone legislation, Duckworth said: “We owe it to the troops we send overseas—and their families—to ensure they have access to the high-quality medical care their sacrifices deserve, both during periods of conflict and in peacetime, whether that means getting injured servicemembers to medical facilities within the ‘golden hour’ wherein lives can still be saved or simply ensuring military families are able to deliver their babies safely,
  • Reinforcing the U.S.-Vietnam Relationship by extending the duration of the Vietnam Wartime Accounting Initiative and clarifying the purpose of the cooperative program to expand its activities.
  • Strengthening U.S.-Taiwan Defense Cooperation by including a modified version of the bipartisan PARTNER with Taiwan Act, which Senator Duckworth helped Senator Rosen introduce to expand global defense production, increase supply chain security and resilience and meet the defense needs of Taiwan.
  • Understanding INDOPACOM Water Security by requiring the Department to report back to the committee about water security in the Indo-Pacific and implications for the DoD and regional dynamics, to inform more proactive future planning.

Build the Logistics Enterprise for a Combat-Credible Deterrent by:

  • Expanding Aeromedical Evacuation Capabilities by requiring a study on creating an Aeromedical Evacuation Center of Excellence to enhance advanced training and interoperability for operations in a contested environment, building on the outstanding work done by the men and women of TRANSCOM at Illinois’s Scott Air Force Base.
  • Sustaining the Army’s Real Estate Management Cost Savings Tools by authorizing a one-year extension of the Army’s Real Property Management program, which aims to use taxpayer dollars efficiently and identify opportunities for installations like Rock Island Arsenal.
  • Resourcing a Vital USTRANSCOM Requirement by increasing the cap on the DoD's authority to buy used sealift vessels, a major priority for U.S TRANSCOM. Duckworth cosponsored this provision authored by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND).
  • Improving Supply Chain Management by urging the Secretary of the Navy to develop and implement a strategy to accelerate the integration of advanced digital supply chain management capabilities.
  • Increasing Air Force Flightline Effectiveness through supporting Air Force efforts to enhance flightline support equipment connectivity and implement future doctrine and agile capabilities.

Tackle Climate Change and Defend the Environment by:

  • Enabling the Military’s Use of Sustainable Fuel by removing an existing prohibition on the bulk purchase of renewable fuels to allow the Department to take advantage of advancing fuel technology to make logistical, environmental and health gains for servicemembers.
  • Expanding the Department's use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) by authorizing the expansion of a Duckworth-created pilot program to six geographically diverse facilities that can benefit from using the latest SAF technology.

Restore American Competitiveness by:

  • Building Stronger Local Communities by allowing the Department to make grants to local communities to improve infrastructure around military bases that benefit local communities, like those surrounding Rock Island Arsenal, and the Department.
  • Leveraging Quantum Expertise to Educate Military Children by requiring DoD to evaluate opportunities to bring basic quantum education into DoD schools, providing early education in STEAM concepts for a student population that performs highly and has a strong likelihood to serve in the military.
  • Modernizing Advanced Armament Systems via Agile Manufacturing through authorizing additional investments in advanced, agile and AI manufacturing capabilities for advanced munition systems enhancing American strategic competitiveness. 
  • Advancing U.S. Supercomputing Power by authorizing additional investments to maintain exascale computing on track and establish sustained research efforts on AI systems that maintain the U.S.’s supercomputing edge.
  • Implementing Secure Electronics in the Department through better the implementation status for trusted and secure microelectronics in the Department.
  • Improving the Army's Global IT Support by urging the Army to include detailed information in future budget requests regarding specific milestones, timelines and resources needed to improve IT systems, user experience and cybersecurity, especially regarding artificial intelligence capabilities.
  • Increasing Satellite Communications Resiliency and Reliability by requesting the Department’s plan to incorporate Waveform Architecture for Virtualized Ecosystem industry standards for satellite communications.

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