ST. LOUIS–President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act, an $816.7 billion package that lays out policy priorities and funding. In Missouri, home to Ft. Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force Base, and in the St. Louis region Scott Air Force Base and a major defense manufacturer in Boeing, there are major implications.

Military pay

Service members will see a 4.6% pay raise and a 2% increase in a housing allowance. The bill also “requires the DoD to study, with the intent to revise, the basic pay tables to modernize and more realistically and fairly compensate service members,” according to a summary prepared by the House Armed Services Committee.

Scott Air Force Base

Rep. Mike Bost R-Ill applauded the measure which will keep C-40 aircraft that are maintained at Scott Air Force Base from being retired. He said it also means almost $20 million for a Child Development Center and $52 million in family housing.

Boeing

The NDAA includes funding for eight of the company’s F-18 Super Hornets and 24 F-15 fighter jets, built in St. Louis and supported by scores of area suppliers. Pentagon officials have said on several occasions in recent years that they have wanted to move away from buying new F-18s.

COVID-19

Republicans successfully won an effort to eliminate the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for military personnel in the NDAA. A provision that would have reinstated those who were discharged for failing to get vaccinated did not make it into the final bill, although Sen. Josh Hawley has joined with a handful of others in the Senate who have called for the Biden administration to take separate action.

Ulysses S. Grant

It didn’t happen in time for what would have coincided with the former President’s 200th birthday, but Ulysses S. Grant, whose St. Louis County home is a historic landmark, will get a military promotion.

Rep. Ann Wagner and Sen. Roy Blunt sponsored the Ulysses S. Grant Bicentennial Recognition Act which was folded into the larger NDAA. It calls for President Biden to posthumously award Grant the ranking of General of the Armies of the United States, the highest rank possible in the US Army.

The rank was introduced in 1799, eliminated in 1802, and was reinstated in 1919 when Missouri-born John Pershing was bestowed the ranking due to his service in World War I. It was later given to George Washington in honor of the 1976 Bicentennial of the nation’s founding.