WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) released the following statement after the Senate voted 70-27 in favor of final passage for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA): 

“Despite my reservations about the budgetary gimmicks in this bill, I voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) today because it provides important support for our men and women in uniform as they serve and defend the country.  It supports key reforms and Virginia priorities, including funding for shipbuilding and ship repair. For the first time, it also allows service members who have served fewer than 20 years to be eligible for some retirement benefits.

“The defense community needs and deserves direction and stability in order to make important decisions about our national security. We’ve seen the effects of unpredictable budgeting as recently as a few weeks ago, when Hampton Roads shipyards announced more than 1,000 layoffs caused in large part by a lack of stable funding and programming. We need to work to find a budget compromise that balances both defense and non-defense priorities and gets us back to a stable budget process that provides predictability. Funding defense to the exclusion of other spending priorities is a path to a less secure, less vibrant nation.  We must find a better way to balance all of these priorities going forward.”