Annual National Defense Legislation with Major Louisiana Priorities Secured by Congressman Johnson Passes House of Representatives

Press Release

United States Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04) voted in support of the final Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening by a bipartisan vote.

The legislation funds major priorities for our country's national defense and for Louisiana's 4th Congressional District, which is home to Barksdale Air Force Base and the Global Strike Command, Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center, and the Louisiana National Guard Training Site at Camp Minden.

"I am so grateful that we were able to secure major priorities for our military installations in the Fourth Congressional District in this year's NDAA, which will help keep our country safe from adversaries like Russia and China," Johnson said. "I am proud that a large bipartisan group of colleagues came together to pass this final bill through the House and look forward to its swift consideration by the Senate."

During the House Armed Services Committee markup of the legislation earlier this year, Congressman Johnson successfully added two amendments to the legislation -- an amendment that would ensure servicemembers and their families are properly counted in the census, and an amendment requiring U.S. intelligence agencies to produce an unclassified report on the true origins of COVID-19.

Major Louisiana priorities included in the National Defense Authorization Act:

Barksdale Air Force Base

$40 million for the construction of a weapons generation facility (WGF). This first installment to construct a WGF will ensure Barksdale's B-52s can be loaded with their nuclear payloads at Barksdale rather than at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
$36 million for the construction of a new gate and entrance complex that will accommodate traffic from the newly constructed I-20/I-220 interchange.
Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center

$56 million for the construction of a new barracks that will drastically improve the housing provided to servicemembers stationed at the installation.
$55 million for the construction of a new joint operations center (JOC), which serves as the command and control hub for training rotations. The current JOC was originally constructed in the early 1960s as a classroom and is inadequate to meet the rigorous training demands of the Army.
Camp Minden

$13.8 million for the construction of a new barracks that will drastically improve the housing on site.
Air Force B-52 Program

$660.8 million for B-52 sustainment, modernization, operations, and maintenance.
Air Force Air-Launched Cruise Missile

$46.8 million for the development of a new air-launched cruise missile that will ensure the B-52 remains a viable nuclear deterrent and will keep the aircraft flying for decades to come.
Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications Modernization

$26.5 million to upgrade the decades-old systems that are used to communicate with and direct nuclear bombers like the ones stationed at Barksdale.
Background from the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on the bipartisan, bicameral agreement on this year's National Defense Authorization Act:

This legislation is substantially based on two bills: H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which passed the House on September 23 by a vote of 316-113; and S. 2792, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 21 by a vote of 23-3. The two bills were combined through a series of negotiations led by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

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