by Owen Klinsky
Little-known environmental provisions included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2025 do not impact military operations but will instead serve to “protect native vegetation,” a Navy spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement Tuesday.
Defense valued at almost $884 billion Bill passed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday includes an initiative to “manage, control, and prohibit the coconut rhinoceros beetle” – invasive species insects that drilled holes in the crowns of palm trees – “at military installations in Hawaii.” The Navy itself acknowledges that the purpose of this initiative is to protect vegetation, and therefore it is not actually related to Department of Defense (DOD) activities. declared mission “to provide the armed forces needed to deter war and ensure the security of our nation.”
“While the coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRBs) do not pose an operational threat to Navy installations in Hawaii, the invasive insects cause significant environmental damage,” a spokesman for the Commander, Naval Region Hawaii, told DCNF. “CRB is destroying and killing palm trees, including the native loulou-hiwa palm (Pritchardia Maria) and have the potential to significantly reduce coconut production and palm stands… It was significant to the Navy to fund CRB control projects to protect native vegetation on Oahu.
The NDAA is a scorching piece of garbage.
They removed almost all provisions related to cleaning up the military’s spending on Wokeness, DEI, and Critical Race Theory, while also leaving a fund for abortion travel. This needs to be voted on. pic.twitter.com/33rRLBNb7t
— Rep. Eric Burlison (@RepEricBurlison) December 11, 2023
The spokesman justified the effort on the grounds that the Navy would act as a “steward” of the environment, adding that “biosecurity is becoming an increasing priority and preventing new introductions of invasive species is critical.” Biosecurity became a Defense Department priority under former President Barack Obama in 2015, when the agency completed a process Regional Biosecurity Plan (RBP) to reduce the potential for the spread of invasive species in the Pacific as part of an “environmental impact analysis of a plan to potentially relocate military personnel from a base in Okinawa, Japan.”
The Navy also funded an initiative to combat coconut rhinoceros beetles in fiscal year 2024, authorizing the creation of a “2,500-foot containment zone around Navy sea and air ports” and establishing “twice-yearly palm surveys and treatments” – spokesman for the Department of Defense. said DCNF. The FY 2025 NDAA does not clarify how much federal funding will go to the coconut rhino initiative.
In addition to efforts to contain the coconut rhinoceros, the FY2025 NDAA green lights hundreds of millions in funds for “minority-serving” schools and funds the cryogenetic freezing of semen from service members.
The Pentagon is notorious lost in November it conducted its seventh consecutive annual audit after failing to fully account for its more than $824 billion budget. The agency has not undergone a single audit since the statutory obligation to conduct them came into force in 2018.
Additionally, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office released On Tuesday, it was revealed that the Navy wasted more than $1.8 billion on an initiative with “poor oversight” to modernize cruisers. The federal government posted a deficit of approximately $1.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024, while the U.S. national debt now exceeds $36 trillion. According to to the Bipartisan Policy Center and the U.S. Treasury’s deficit tracker data.
US Senate passed on Wednesday’s NDAA for fiscal year 2025, approximately 1,800 pages long, with 85 members in favor and 14 against, and the legislation is now expected to go to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
“There’s half a billion dollars worth of foreign aid there,” said Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett, who voted against the bill: he said in the movie on X after it passed. “We have to do better. This is not what you all voted for.”
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Owen Klinsky is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
