A group of lawmakers recently gathered at a military installation to witness President Trump sign the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019 into law.
The bill supports $716 billion in funding for national defense for fiscal year 2019, per officials, and provides service members with the training, resources, and equipment they need.
Rep. Martha McSally ( R-AZ) was one of six members of Congress who attended the ceremony via a White House invitation.
“I’m working with President Trump to rebuild our military and grow our defense assets to ensure we continue to have the strongest military in the world,” McSally said. “We are restoring readiness and increasing capability and capacity in a force that has been asked to do too much with too little for too long.”
McSally said the NDAA gives troops a much-deserved raise; provides funding for the A-10s based at Davis-Monthan; supports the F-35s based at Luke AFB and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma; and also provides millions of dollars for base upgrades.
The measure, penned at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New York, is named in honor of Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ).
“I’m very proud that the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 has been signed into law,” McCain said. “[This] bill signing completes the historically quick process by which the NDAA has become law, and will help deliver our service members the resources they need to rise to the challenges of a dangerous world. I thank my colleagues in Congress for working together to craft this legislation, which honors our men and women in uniform and lives up to the traditions of bipartisanship and collaboration that have come to define the NDAA process.”