Senate Passes NDAA Without DOD Worker’s Union Rights, Adds Accountability for DOD RIFs and Shipyard Workforce
This week, the Senate passed the final compromise National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), S. 1071, and President has signed and enacted the bill. While an earlier bipartisan House-passed version of the NDAA, H.R. 3838, included language to deny DOD use any funds to implement the March 27 Trump Executive Order 14251, which striped federal workers across DOD of their collective bargaining rights, that language was not included in the House-Senate compromise text that was released in early December.
While IFPTE pushed Senators to hold their support for passing the NDAA until the language protecting DOD workers’ collective bargaining rights was inserted back in the bill, the bill had enough support to advance and pass.
The NDAA does contain some provisions that IFPTE strongly supports. Language in the enacted bill will prohibit any reductions in force (RIFs) or hiring freezes at Navy shipyards. The bill also contains language to require DOD to provide congression justification on civilian workforce reductions or realignments.