Defense budget draft includes funding to benefit Kitsap's sailors, federal workers

The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has approved a Defense Department fiscal year 2019 budget that would allocate funding for projects in the Pacific Northwest and put more money into the pockets of the sailors and civilian defense employees.

The committee voted to approve the 2019 Defense Appropriations Act that would give the military a budget of nearly $675 billion, on par with the amount needed to fund the priorities outlined in the House's recently passed National Defense Authorization Act.  

The Defense Department budget has to go through Congress' two-pronged funding approach. The National Defense Authorization Act approves the Department of Defense's policy objectives and what it would cost to carry out those goals, while the appropriation bill allocates the money necessary to fund most of those priorities.

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In the current version of the appropriations bill, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, wrote a few key provisions that will benefit sailors, federal defense-sector workers and civilians living around Puget Sound's military installations.

For years, Kilmer has pushed to reverse a 2014 Department of Defense policy change that reduced the per diem reimbursement rate for federal employees and military personnel who are traveling for work on a temporary duty assignment. 

The policy change cut reimbursement rates for service members and employees who traveled for more than 30 days by 25 percent and further cut the rate for those who were away for more than 180 days by 45 percent.

Kilmer said the policy change shifted an undue burden onto federal employees who had to travel for work, especially those who work at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and are often away from home for extended periods of time to perform ship maintenance with one of the shipyard's remote detachments in Japan or San Diego. 

"While I'm all about being fiscally smart, it’s not right to nickle and dime our federal workers," Kilmer said. "PSNS employees are working hard and we shouldn't be taking it out of their pay check."

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Kilmer has sought to include language in the House's defense appropriations bill to reverse the cuts for the past three years. He said this year might finally be the chance to restore prior reimbursement levels since language to do so has already been included in both the approved House and Senate draft versions of the National Defense Authorization Act.

"You've got House and Senate appropriators and authorizers all making the same point now," Kilmer said. "I've had more conversations this year about this to help them understand the negative impact this has had."

Kilmer authored another provision in the bill that would allocate $2 million for the Navy to research and develop technology that could reduce the noise created by Naval Air Station Whidbey Island's EA-18G Growlers, the Navy's carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft, which frequently train in the airspace above the Olympic Peninsula.

"The Navy has been our neighbor for a long time and we want to make sure they’re a good neighbor and steps are being taken to reduce noise over the region," Kilmer said. "If there's technology that can mitigate that concern, that's a real win-win."

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In addition to those provisions, Kilmer said the bill funds a few other key items to benefit Kitsap, including a 2.6 percent pay raise for service members and a nearly $300 million funding package to address the maintenance and modernization backlog plaguing the Navy's four shipyards.

The committee's marked up version of the appropriations bill will likely soon head to the floor for a full chamber vote. The Senate's companion version of the bill is still under review. If both versions pass, they will have to be reconciled into one piece of legislation before President Trump signs the bill into law.