Roby Selected for NDAA Conference Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Martha Roby (AL-02) has been appointed to serve on the conference committee tasked with negotiating a final agreement between the House and Senate on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The House and Senate passed different versions of the NDAA, which Congress must pass every year to authorize military programs and set policy for the Department of Defense. Rep. Roby will now serve on a conference committee made up of designees from each chamber charged with producing a compromise version of the bill that can pass the full Congress.

“I’m honored to be selected as a conferee on this important legislation,” Rep. Roby said. “Providing for the common defense is one of the fundamental duties of the Congress spelled out in the Constitution. I look forward to working with conferees from both chambers to ensure we report out a bill that properly aligns our military resources with our defense priorities, while keeping faith with our men and women in uniform.”

Rep. Roby serves on the House Armed Services Committee and represents two military installations within Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District: Fort Rucker in Southeast Alabama and Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery.

Rep. Roby played a key role in crafting language in the bill to ensure that the Air Force gives a transparent accounting for costs savings from planned resource relocations. She worked alongside Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) to insist on such an accounting when the Air Force released a plan removing C-130 aircraft from Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery. That plan has since been revised to keep the current seven C-130 aircraft at Maxwell with the possibility of adding an eighth aircraft.

Jeff Coleman, who serves on the executive board of the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce and is a member of Friends of Fort Rucker, said Rep. Roby’s influence in final NDAA negotiations is encouraging for military interests in the Wiregrass.

“Congressman Roby has been a voice for Fort Rucker and Wiregrass military interests since she was first elected, and her increased influence has helped that voice grow stronger over the last two years,” Coleman said. “It is encouraging to know our Congressman commands the level of trust and respect from her colleagues and the House Leadership it takes to be selected as a conferee on such an important piece of legislation.”

The House version of the NDAA authorizes a national defense base budget of $554.2 billion plus $88.5 billion for overseas contingency operations.