RELEASE: KHANNA SECURES SERVICE MEMBER PROTECTIONS IN NDAA COMMITTEE MARKUP

Washington, DC –Today, Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) secured important provisions to strengthen the United States’ commitment to protecting civilians from harm from U.S. military operations in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Full Committee Markup for Fiscal Year 2025.

“I was the lone no vote on the NDAA out of the House Armed Services Committee because I believe we should use this money to invest in a modern national security strategy that will actually keep us safe and domestic priorities instead of further enriching defense contractors,” said Representative Khanna. “But I’m proud that several of my amendments were adopted in the final bill out of committee, including a provision to protect American service members from the overlooked dangers of traumatic brain injuries and blast overpressure. By improving care, mitigating exposure, and providing greater transparency in our military's equipment procurement process, we can protect the health of the brave men and women who serve our country.”

An overview of Khanna’s amendments is below:

• Direct the Department of Defense (DoD) to help mitigate and protect service members from blast overpressure (Bill)
  • This provision mandates regular neurocognitive assessments over a service member’s career, creates blast overpressure exposure and TBI logs for all service members, mandates GAO review on DoD efforts to address blast exposure, and enhances efforts to mitigate exposure and help service members access care.

• Vertical Farming (Report)
  • This provision would direct DoD to report to Congress on the potential benefits of locating high-tech indoor farms on active military installations and closed facilities.

• Diabetes and Obesity (Report)
  • This provision would require DoD to brief Congress on efforts to address and treat active duty service members with type II diabetes.

• Biotech Roadmap (Bill)
  • This provision requires DoD to publish a biotechnology roadmap. The roadmap will help DoD coordinate its biotechnology efforts with an end goal to increase the adoption of biotech solutions.

• Biobased product purchasing (Report)
  • This provision directs DoD to assess and brief Congress on the potential for domestic biomanufacturing to diversify critical supply chains and increase domestic resilience.

• AI and Biotech Sandbox (Bill)
  • This provision directs DoD to establish a public-private partnership that focuses on use cases and demonstrations of AI towards biotechnology applications for national security.

• Biotech International Collaboration (Report)
  • This provision requires DOD to brief Congress on challenges around joint collaborative biotechnology work in research and development with allies.

• DOD Biotech Workforce (Report)
  • This provision requires DoD to report to Congress on their biotechnology workforce needs in the next five and ten years.

• Participatory Autism Research for Women and Girls (Report)
  • This provision recognizes the importance of participatory research when researching the experiences of autistic women, and directs the Secretary to brief Congress with the state of its use in the field, the extent to which women are underdiagnosed, and any recommendations to improve research, policies, or resources dedicated to autism research or support services. 

• Reserves Healthcare License Portability (Bill)
  • This provision would expand license portability for health care providers who provide medical services under the Reserve Health Readiness Program.

• Mandate an independent report on the biotech capabilities of American adversaries
  • This provision requires DoD to fund an assessment of biotechnology capabilities of adversaries of the United States.

• Biotech Commission Modification
  • This provision would extend the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology to allow for continued activities after the Congressional transition.

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Congressman Khanna represents the 17th District of California, which covers communities in Silicon Valley. Visit his website at khanna.house.gov. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @RepRoKhanna.