Senate Passes 2025 NDAA
The Senate has approved the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for it to be signed into law by the president. Among the most significant portions of the act; a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted servicemembers.
According to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) official site, the 2025 NDAA was informed by “the yearlong work and final report of the bipartisan Quality of Life panel, which focused on pay and compensation, housing, health care, childcare, and spousal support.”
Major Pay Increase For Junior Troops
According to the HASC, the result is the previously mentioned 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members and also a 4.5% pay raise for all other service members “along with provisions focused on health care, housing, childcare, military spousal support, and civilian workforce benefits.”
The FY25 NDAA authorizes $143.8 billion in research, development, testing, and evaluation for “force protection challenges,” plus $17.5 billion for science and technology programs.
The focus of the 2025 NDAA is not just on quality-of-life initiatives. There is much defense and research spending listed in the bill, but what military families want to know is listed below. The 2025 NDAA includes funding for many military quality-of-life programs, including, but not limited to, what’s listed below:
Pay and Quality of Life Initiatives in the FY25 NDAA
Compensation
- 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers (E-1 – E-4)
- 4.5% pay raise for all other servicemembers
- Improved servicemember cost of living allowance calculation
- Expanded access to the Basic Needs Allowance
- Reevaluation of Basic Allowance for Subsistence
Housing
- Additional $954 million for housing maintenance and facility maintenance
- Public-private partnerships to lease new barracks and unaccompanied housing
- $569 million for new family housing
- $1.2 billion for barracks improvement and construction
- Renovation and reuse of historic housing units
- Oversight of unaccompanied housing and increased inspections
- Congressional oversight of housing maintenance accounts
- Free wireless internet access in unaccompanied housing
Medical Care
- Direct access to specialty medical providers
- Recruitment bonuses and increased compensation for doctors
- Waiving prior federal service hiring requirements for nurses
- Reporting on access to care data and healthcare staffing shortages
- Expanded medical license portability for healthcare providers serving reservists
Childcare
- Over $176 million for new childcare centers
- Full funding for childcare fee assistance programs
- Competitive pay for childcare workers
- Childcare fee coverage for staff’s first child
- Congressional oversight of childcare programs
Supporting Spouses
- “Easier transfer” of professional licenses between states
- Codification of the Military Spouses Career Accelerator
- Quick filling of open civilian positions with military spouses
The FY25 NDAA also authorizes $895.2 billion for national defense discretionary programs and includes $31 billion in cost savings.
The bill also focuses on military and industrial base readiness, innovation, acquisition reform, defending Israel, countering other adversaries, and strengthening strategic deterrence, missile defense, and space capabilities. The NDAA becomes law once the President signs it.
About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
