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Pay Raises for Servicemembers

Senator Tillis played a leading role is securing six consecutive pay raises for our servicemembers, including some of the largest raises in recent decades.

Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) Reform

  • Thom led the most comprehensive reform of the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act since its inception in 1980, which includes key provisions to better align officer management with the objectives included in the National Defense Strategy. These provisions will modernize DOPMA to provide the services with the authority and flexibility to better recruit, support, and retain officers.

Combatting Opioid Abuse

  • Thom secured a provision requiring the Department of Defense to establish and maintain a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program that will allow bi-directional information sharing for designated controlled substances.

    This language was the result of a roundtable hosted by Thom in Fayetteville that examined pain management practices in the DoD, VA, and civilian health care sectors.

  • Thom also secured a provision establishing a 3-year comprehensive pilot program to minimize early opioid exposure and to prevent opioid misuse and abuse. This program will maximize opioid safety across the entire continuum of care and seeks to prevent the progression to misuse or abuse of opioid medications.
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Advocating on Behalf of Military Families

Securing Impact Aid for Military Dependent Children

Thom has secured impact aid that assists military dependent children, including:
  • $120 million in supplemental impact aid to local educational agencies with military dependent children.
  • $20 million in impact aid for schools with military dependent children with severe disabilities.
  • $1 million for a pilot program on public-private partnerships for telework facilities to facilitate spousal employment on military installations outside the United States.

Leading the effort to modernize and improve health care for servicemembers and their families

Thom has played a leading role in pushing reforms to the TRICARE system by increasing collaboration between the military and private sector. TRICARE is the military health plan for servicemembers, military retirees, and their families.

Thom’s solutions:
  • Established high performance military-civilian integrated health delivery systems, which would foster innovation in military treatment facilities, enhance operational medical force readiness, and improve access to specialized medical care.
  • Required the Secretary of Defense to enter into centrally-managed, performance-based contracts with private sector entities to improve the delivery of health care services at military treatment facilities with limited ability to provide services such as primary care or expanded-hours urgent care.
  • Set the stage for memoranda of agreement between the Department of Defense and institutions of higher education to improve and sustain operational medical force readiness and possibly serve as a productive recruiting ground for new military physicians.
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Working across the aisle to ensure military families have access to autism therapy for their children

Senators Tillis and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have worked together to help stop reductions to TRICARE’s reimbursement rates for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy to beneficiaries diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Tillis and Gillibrand urged the Secretary of Defense to delay the new rates until after completion of the TRICARE Autism Care Demonstration program to protect ABA therapy access for over 26,000 children of military personnel and retirees. The following month, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) moved forward with adjusting TRICARE reimbursement rates for ABA therapy to beneficiaries diagnosed with ASD. The National Defense Authorization Act included a Tillis-Gillibrand provision that would address issues with reimbursement rates for the TRICARE Autism Care Demonstration program to ensure access to care for all military dependents with ASD.

Rolling back these…rules alone will save our economy billions of dollars and millions of hours in compliance costs over time. That is real money back in the pockets of hard working Americans without reforming a single provision in the tax code or cutting a single program in the budget.

McClatchy

Combatting juvenile sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse

Thom took action following an Associated Press investigation on the prevalence of juvenile sexual assault and harassment on military bases. Thom secured a provision in the FY2019 NDAA which requires the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) to establish policies and procedures to extend the same Title IX protections for students at civilian schools to students at DoDEA schools who are victims of sexual harassment.

Thom has also worked across the aisle to prevent domestic violence and child abuse. He introduced the Military Family PROTECT Act with Senator Gillibrand (D-NY), which was codified into law. It established multidisciplinary teams for military installations on child abuse and domestic violence.

Additionally, Thom secured a provision in the FY2019 NDAA to authorize a pilot program on the prevention of child abuse and training on safe childcare practices among military families and a provision to establish a new punitive article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibiting domestic violence.

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Creating career and job opportunities for servicemembers and their spouses

  • Thom has worked to expand career and job opportunities for military spouses, recognizing the vast personal and professional sacrifices they make.
  • Thom included a provision in the NDAA to expand authority for non-competitive appointments of military spouses by federal agencies.
  • Thom secured an amendment in the NDAA that would close the two-year time limit loophole for military spouses who move from base to base and seek federal employment on that base. 

    Currently, a military spouse only has two years to invoke the military spouse preference from the date of the service member’s permanent change of station orders, which are issued well in advance of a military family arriving at a new duty station. Combined with the demands of raising children, adjusting to new surroundings, and the actual availability of federal jobs, many military spouses have missed consideration for employment or have had job offers withdrawn because they lost eligibility.
  • Thom co-introduced legislation with Senators Warren (D-MA) and Cornyn (R-TX) that helps provide more job opportunities for servicemembers by easing the burden on the process whereby active-duty military, reservists, and veterans apply for their commercial driver’s license. The new law allows the experience servicemembers gained serving our nation to apply in a civilian capacity and not force them to go through a redundant credentialing process to obtain a commercial driver’s license.

Securing a major Census change to count North Carolina servicemembers

Thom worked with the communities of Fayetteville and Jacksonville and the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure that U.S. military personnel who are deployed outside the U.S. and are living on or off a military installation outside the U.S. are counted as residents of the state where they live and sleep most of the time. Previously, the Census counted deployed servicemembers as residents of states they lived in at the time they originally enlisted for service.

The changes to the census mean that all Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines from North Carolina’s military installations will be counted in the decennial census as residents of the state, regardless of whether or not they are deployed abroad.

Since many federal tax dollars are proportional to population, North Carolina would benefit from additional Departments of Education, Transportation, and Agriculture funding as a result of an increased population in the census.

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Supporting NC’s Military Installations

Thom has helped secure more than $2.6 billion in funding for improvements to North Carolina’s military installations.

Successfully halting a plan to transfer 24 AG-64 Apache helicopters from the North Carolina National Guard

Thom successfully stopped the planned transfer of 24 AG-64 Apache helicopters from the N.C. National Guard in Raleigh to the regular Army. Thom’s provision helped save roughly 400 North Carolina jobs, and most importantly stopped a plan that would have undermined the combat prowess of the Army Guard, the nation’s first line of defense.

TOTAL: $2.65 Billion

Camp Lejeune

  1. $47.4M – Camp Lejeune Regional Communications Station, Hadnot Point (FY23)
  2. $6.6M– Camp Lejeune Schools Modernization (FY23)
  3. $42.2M– II MEF Operations Center Replacement (FY22)
  4. $20.0M – Camp Lejeune II MEF Operations Center Replacement (FY21)
  5. $122.2M – II MEF Operations Center Replacement (FY20)
  6. $60.1M – 2nd MARDIV/2nd MLG Ops Center Replacement
  7. $37.9M – Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (FY18)
  8. $65.7M – Water Treatment Plant Replacement Hadnot Point (FY18)
  9. $43.4M – Ambulatory Care Center/Dental Clinic (FY18)
  10. $20.5M – SOF Motor Transport Maintenance Facility (SOCOM) (FY18)
  11. $31.0M – Dental Clinic Replacement (FY17)
  12. $18.4M – Range Facilities Safety Improvements (FY17)
  13. $50.5M – 2nd Radio BN Complex Operations Consolidation (FY16)
  14. $54.8M – Simulator Integration/Range Control Facility (FY16)
  15. $54.9M– SOF Marine Battalion Company/Team Facilities (FY16)

$894.9M – Total

Cherry Point

Highlights include:
  1. $58.0M – F-35 Flightline Util Modernization Ph 2 (FY23)
  2. $38.4M – CH-53K Gearbox Repair and Test Facility (FY23)
  3. $21.0M – Aircraft Maintenance Hangar (FY23)
  4. $33.5M – F-35 Flightline Utilities Modernization (FY22)
  5. $57.9M – Aircraft Maintenance Hangar (FY22)
  6. $51.9M – Cherry Point Fitness Center Replacement and Training Pool (FY21)
  7. $74.0M – Central Heating Plan Conversion (FY17)
  8. $61.3M – KC 130J Enlisted Air Crew Trainer Facility (FY16)
  9. $51.2M – Unmanned Aircraft System Facilities (FY16)
  10. $55.0M – Flightline Utility Modernization (FY19)
  11. $60.0M – Aircraft Maintenance Hangar (FY19)
  12. $15.6M – F-35B Vertical Lift Fan Test Facility (FY18)
  13. $12.5M – Central Heating Plan Conversion (FY17)
  14. $29.6M – Unmanned Aircraft System Facilities (FY16)

$759.7M – Total

Seymour Johnson

  1. $3.3M – Combat Arms and Maintenance Complex (FY23)
  2. $530,000 –KC–46 Alert Facility (FY23)
  3. $6.4M – KC-46A ADAL for Alt Mission Storage (FY18)
  4. $20.0M – Tanker Truck Delivery System (Defense Logistics Agency) (FY18)
  5. $90.0M – KC-46A Two Bay Corrosion/Fuel Cell Hanger (FY17)
  6. $5.7M – KC-46A ADAL Building for Age/Fuselage Training (FY17)
  7. $2.2M – KC-46A ADAL Squadron Operations Facility (FY17)
  8. $17.1M –Air Traffic Control Tower/Base OPS Facility (FY16)

$145.2M – Total

Fort Liberty

Highlights include:
  1. $34.0M – Multipurpose Training Range (FY23)
  2. $18.8M – Fort Liberty SOF Operations Building (FY23)
  3. $15.6M – Fort Liberty SOF Supply Support Activity (FY23)
  4. $7.5M – Albritton Middle School Addition (FY23)
  5. $3.6M – Fort Liberty Child Development Center (FY23)
  6. $2.0M – Automated Record Fire Range (FY23)
  7. $1.6M – Multipurpose Machine Gun Range (FY23)
  8. $1.35M – Automated Infantry Platoon Battle Course (FY23)
  9. $19.5M – 10MW Microgrid Utilizing Existing and New Generators (FY22)
  10. $53.1M – SOF Group Headquarters: $53.1 million (FY21)
  11. $17.7M – Fort Liberty SOF Military Working Dog Facility: $17.7 million (FY21)
  12. $43.0M – SOF Human Platform-Force Generation Facility (FY20)
  13. $29.0M – SOF Operations Support Building (FY20)
  14. $20.2M – SOF Human Performance Training Center (SOCOM) (FY18)
  15. $13.5M – SOF Support Battalion Admin Facility (SOCOM) (FY18)
  16. $43.5M – SOF Tactical Equipment Maintenance Facility (SOCOM) (FY18)
  17. $30.6M – SOF Special Tactics Facility, Phase 3 (FY17)
  18. $21.4M – SOF Parachute Rigging Facility (FY17)
  19. $10.9M – Combat Medic Training Facility (FY17)
  20. $32.9M – Butner Elementary School Replacement (FY16)
  21. $14.3M – SOF 21 STS Operations Facility (FY16)
  22. $38.5M – SOF Battalion Operations Facility (FY16)
  23. $28.2M – SOF Intelligence Training Center (FY16)
  24. $43.8M – SOF Special Tactics Facility, Phase 2 (FY16)

$688.9M – Total

New River

  1. $21.0M – Three Module Type II Hangar (FY23)
  2. $13.3M – Maintenance Hangar (FY22)
  3. $2.7M – Hangar Additions/Alterations - $2.7 million
  4. $10.0M – Dining Facility
  5. $32.5M – Amb Care Center/Dental Clinic Replacement (FY19)
  6. $4.9M – Radar Air Traffic Control Facility Addition (FY16)
  7. $3.3M – Operational Trainer Facility

$77.8M – Total

National Guard

  1. $15.0M – McLeansville Camp Burton Road National Guard Vehicle Maintenance Shop(FY23)
  2. $4.5M – Morrisville Army Aviation Flight Facility #1 (FY23)
  3. $29.6M – C-17 Corrosion Control/Fuel Cell Hangar
  4. $21.0M – C-17 Type III Hydrant Refueling System
  5. $9.0M – Replace C-130 Squadron Operations Facility

$79.1M – Total