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Several Key AFGE Priorities Included in Compromise 2023 Defense Authorization Act
December 12, 2022
Categories:
DoD, The Insider
AFGE thanks Senate and House negotiators for including many of our union’s top priorities affecting employees in the Department of Defense and other federal agencies in the compromise version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that passed the House on Dec. 8. The Senate is expected to vote on the legislation this week.
“This legislation will improve pay and working conditions for civil service employees both inside and outside the Department of Defense and achieves many of our union’s top legislative priorities for the year,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said. “I urge the Senate to pass this legislation swiftly and send it to President Biden for his signature.”
Among the key AFGE-backed provisions realized by the compromise, the NDAA:
- Eliminates a Senate provision that would have delayed the ending of the two-year probationary period for newly hired DoD civilians at the end of 2022, bringing DoD in line with the one-year probationary period used at most other federal agencies.
- Prohibits the Department of Defense from reducing the authorized number of military medical personnel for the next five years accompanied with specific civilian employee backfill and hiring plans to address persistent civilian vacancies in support of the Defense health program.
- Requires DoD to make technical data requirements decisions and core logistics and total force management risk assessments to inform strategic workforce planning on the number of miliary, civilian employees, and contractors needed to operate and sustain major weapon systems early in the acquisition life cycle.
- Clarifies a provision so military exchanges can continue to operate and provide the full range of goods to military families.
- Eliminates a proposal to privatize Navy and Air Force lodging programs.
- Provides an additional $235 million to the Defense Commissary Agency and another $2.5 billion to the Defense working capital fund benefiting the organic industrial base (depots).
- Clarifies the computation of depot carryover in the Army to ensure stability of depot core logistics funding.
- Creates an automatic presumption of disability for federal firefighters who develop heart disease or certain forms of cancer so that they can qualify for workers’ compensation.
- Requires DoD to conduct geographic studies on the pay and benefits for child care providers at military child development centers compared to similarly skilled employees outside DoD.
- Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct annual base and locality pay surveys for health care positions at medical centers to ensure competitive pay rates.
While the NDAA includes many of the union’s legislative priorities, AFGE is profoundly disappointed that the compromise bill excludes legislation passed by the House that would extend full Title 5 rights and equal pay to employees at the Transportation Security Administration.
“The nation’s transportation security officers have been treated like second-class citizens for far too long, and we call on Congress to rectify this unequal treatment by including full Title 5 rights in the omnibus spending bill now being debated,” Kelley said.
The compromise bill also excludes a provision previously passed by the House that would give the District of Columbia mayor the same authority over the National Guard that governors of states and territories have.
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