8th District Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is looking to tackle PFAS cleanup, supply chain resilience and burn pit exposure through measures she will advocate for in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Slotkin, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, will offer nearly 30 amendments Wednesday to the NDAA, the annual bill authorizing national defense spending. According to a release from Slotkin’s office, those provisions include “addressing PFAS exposure and cleanup; winding down the use of toxic burn pits; and strengthening critical defense supply chains to prevent future shortages, reducing American reliance on foreign suppliers and creating American manufacturing jobs.”
Slotkin, a former senior Pentagon official, has advocated for the past several years for PFAS remediation measures to be included in the NDAA. Michigan has a high number of PFAS-contaminated sites, in large part due to the use of PFAS-laden fire-fighting foam on military bases.
In last year’s NDAA, 28 of Slotkin’s bipartisan amendments passed the House, including provisions that require DoD to offer expanded PFAS testing for service members and to disclose PFAS test results for drinking water on or near military installations.
Other amendments will seek to direct the Department of Defense (DoD) to outline its efforts to reduce the use of burn pits, close existing ones and find new methods of waste disposal; require DoD to identify defense services, supplies, and materials critical to meeting defense requirements in the event of a crisis or conflict where the Pentagon relies on a potential adversary, and direct the Secretary of Defense to review DoD’s plan to reduce reliance on potential adversaries every two years; and give the DoD’s National Defense Stockpile Manager more flexibility to address critical material shortfalls and require the Department to report on potential modifications to national technology and the industrial base.
