Pat Fallon

“I want the House to pass this military defense bill. It raises pay and improves healthcare and childcare for service members and their families. It also bases military promotions and hiring only on merit instead of race or sex.”

“Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Rogers for his dedication. He is a great American truly, and it has been an honor to serve under him. I also thank Ranking Member Smith for his good-faith efforts to do everything he can to protect our country. He is truly a credit, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for his work on this bill. The fiscal year 2027 NDAA contains substantial wins for servicemembers and their families and continues the committee’s tradition of improving the quality of life of servicemembers and their families by authorizing a substantial pay raise, expanding childcare, reauthorizing special pays and bonuses, a significant overhaul of the military health system, and multiple military justice reforms. The bill also expands access to healthcare, increases dental coverage for our children and members of the Guard and Reserve, prevents the elimination of uniformed doctors, and increases access to specialty care. Additionally, this bill invests in our defense industrial base by completely restructuring the pay and personnel policies for our wage- grade employees in order to increase wages and reward our hardest workers with quicker promotions and more substantial bonuses. The fiscal year 2027 NDAA includes essential reforms that we all know are critical to refocus our military on warfighting and lethality by requiring all personnel actions to be based on individual merit and demonstrated performance, rather than race, ethnicity, or sex, and preventing the weaponization of administrative investigations. Mr. Chairman, I strongly urge the passage of the fiscal year 2027 NDAA so we can deliver on our promises to our servicemembers and their families. I personally wish to thank from my personal office: Andrew Bond and Jay Knoxville, and also our professional staff here: Dave Giachetti, Hannah Kaufman, Ali Evers, Ellie Bender, Anna Reed and from the minority staff: Ilka Regino and Michaela Reardon for their work on this bill. They have all been really great to work with, and I think we had a wonderful year. I also thank again the leadership from the chairman and the ranking member.”

“I want the House to pass my bill. Right now, the government updates its purchasing rules for inflation every five years. My bill changes that to every three years. This will keep up with price changes, save tax dollars, and make it easier for small businesses to work with the government.”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 7283, the Ensuring Federal Purchasing Efficiency Act. This commonsense, bipartisan legislation is a government procurement reform bill that allows for far more efficient government spending and reduces the burden on small businesses by ensuring they don’t have to navigate different procurement policies from year to year. The Federal Acquisition Council is responsible for making inflation- related adjustments for title 41 purchasing thresholds. Title 41 of the U.S. Code establishes how the Federal Government acquires goods and services. These dollar thresholds define the applicability of different policies, procedures, and restrictions to the procurement of property or services by Federal agencies. Currently, the Federal Acquisition Council makes inflation-related adjustments to purchasing thresholds every 5 years. This bill simply amends title 41, U.S. Code, to require the Federal Acquisition Council to make these adjustments every 3 years, instead of 5, as my good friend from Missouri mentioned. Importantly, this bill does not change the procurement threshold criteria for government agencies. By allowing these inflation-related adjustments to occur more often, it allows Federal acquisitions to better align with purchasing power. In other words, it allows them to be more--say it with me--efficient, something everyone needs more of at this Federal level. Adjusting for inflation on a more frequent basis will save tax dollars spent on administrative costs and will help small businesses by freeing them from navigating different procurement policies every single year. This bill will allow for increased competition to do business with the government and allowing contracting officers to spend more time focusing on larger, more complex procurements. This bill represents part of a suite of procurement-related legislative requests from the administration, specifically the GSA and OMB. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, bipartisan legislation to promote more government efficiency.”