Congressman Crow Secures Key Wins for Colorado’s Servicemembers, Buckley Space Force Base in Annual Defense Legislation

WASHINGTON — Today Congressman Jason Crow (CO-06), a former Army Ranger who serves as Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability, voted to pass this year’s National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (NDAA), which included key priorities he championed to bolster military readiness, improve the lives of US servicemembers and their families in Colorado, and build a stronger national defense at home and abroad.

“I will never forget what it’s like to serve in the boots of an Army private. I know first-hand the impact our annual defense bill has on servicemembers’ lives, military readiness, and our national security,” said Congressman Crow. “This bill will help make critical infrastructure upgrades at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado and provide the largest pay raise for junior servicemembers to help support military readiness and retention.”

This year’s NDAA, includes the following Congressman Crow-led priorities:

Strengthening the Future of Buckley Space Force Base:

• Supporting the Power Independence Project: Provision authorizing $68M for the Power Independence Project to ensure Buckley is able to field new Missile Warning capabilities and not face any power capacity limits.

Enhancing Transparency and Oversight Policies: 

• Improving Transparency on DOD Contracts: Provision that requires the Secretary of Defense to publicize formal guidance on the oversight of Department of Defense contracts that support or enable sensitive activities
• Extending Reporting Requirements: Provision requiring a report on the number of strikes undertaken by the United States against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities and the number of combatant and non-combatant deaths resulting from those strikes
• Examining the Impact of Civilian Harm: Provision examining the extent to which civilian harm that occurs during counterterrorism operations informs intelligence community analyses on mission success of campaigns to defeat foreign terrorist organizations

Ensuring a More Cost-Effective Use of Taxpayer Dollars: 

• Winding Down Duplicative Oversight Office: Provision to responsibly wind down the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the office tasked with overseeing U.S. reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan, and transferring its role to permanent inspector general offices following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021

Building a stronger national defense at home and abroad:

• Uplifting Crisis Management Officials: Provision that designates a senior official within the State Department to coordinate the Department’s overall response to international crises
• Improving Crisis Response Posture: Provision that requires regular tabletop crisis simulations and exercises to strengthen personnel training and improve overall response posture at the Department of State
• Strengthening Lessons Learned: Provision that establishes a clearinghouse of resources that lessons learned at the Department of State to improve crisis response and contingency planning
• Bolstering Diplomatic Training: Provision that highlights the importance of crisis management in the training of foreign service officials

The final conference report also includes:

• Increasing servicemember pay: A 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted servicemembers, and a 4.5% pay increase for the remainder of the force.
• Making life better for our servicemembers: Improvements for servicemember housing, health care, child care, and spousal support

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