Shaheen-Led Provisions to Protect and Support Service Members and Their Families Included in Committee-Passed Annual Bipartisan Defense Bill
**After working for more than a decade, Shaheen secured provisions protecting and expanding service member’s access to contraception**
**Shaheen delivered additional priorities for service members and their families, including expanding child care access and addressing sexual harassment and assault**
(Washington, DC) - U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), secured key provisions to better protect the health and safety of service members and their families in the fiscal year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was approved by the SASC with broad bipartisan support last week. Key wins include expanding access to contraception, improving transparency and accountability for sexual harassment and assault in the National Guard and increasing child care options for military families.
As Co-Chair of the bipartisan U.S. Senate National Guard Caucus, Shaheen secured provisions to improve accountability and transparency for investigations into sexual harassment and assault cases in the National Guard. Shaheen also secured a provision to expand child care access for military families, which is based off her bipartisan bill, the Expanding Access to Child Care for Military Families Act, to help build a strong child care workforce and make long-term investments in child care providers. Notably, Shaheen overcame more than a decade of obstruction to secure a landmark amendment that will ensure all TRICARE beneficiaries get access to FDA-approved contraception without insurance co-pays. The amendment also guarantees that survivors of sexual assault in the military have access to emergency contraception.
“Let’s be clear: service members who are sacrificing to protect our freedoms deserve the same access to contraception as their civilian counterparts,” said Senator Shaheen. “In addition, gaps in contraception coverage, child care support and accountability for sexual assault and harassment harm our military readiness and recruitment at a time when national security and unity is paramount. I’m incredibly pleased that the Committee came together to take these important steps that will better protect and support our service members and their families – and I look forward to enshrining these protections in federal law.”
Protecting Access to Contraception:
Shaheen’s historic amendment requires that all women who receive health care through the military have access to FDA-approved contraception without insurance co-pays, bringing military health care in line with civilian health care and eliminating an undue financial burden for women and dependents in the military. The Shaheen amendment also requires the Department of Defense to develop a comprehensive family planning education program for servicemembers to ensure families can make informed decisions about their future.
Shaheen also helped secure an amendment to improve contraception counseling services for service members, including by mandating contraceptive counseling information in periodic health assessments for service members and including information on contraception in pre-deployment service forms.
Shaheen has been a leader in the U.S. Senate on expanding access to reproductive health care. For years, Shaheen has led the fight to ensure military families receive the quality reproductive health care they deserve with her bipartisan legislation, the Expanding Access to Contraception for Service Members and Dependents Act. In the aftermath of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, Shaheen also introduced legislation, the Protecting Service Members’ and Military Families Access to Health Care Act, to ensure service members can access reproductive care when stationed in states that restrict access to basic reproductive rights, including abortion.
Shaheen has repeatedly addressed the unique and adverse implications that anti-reproductive health care laws will have on servicewomen and military families. Shaheen led 31 of her Senate colleagues in a bipartisan letter urging the Department of Defense to ensure over-the-counter (OTC) birth control is available for service members and their families on military bases without a copay and without a prescription.
Expanding Access to Child Care for Military Families:
Shaheen secured a provision to expand child care access for military families, directing the Department of Defense to support the recruitment and retention of providers in order to build a future child care workforce and make long-term investments in child care providers. The provision also authorizes the Department of Defense to enter into an interagency partnership with a federal agency, such as AmeriCorps, to place national service participants and volunteers trained in education services at military child care centers.
This provision is based on bipartisan legislation Shaheen leads in the Senate, the Expanding Access to Child Care for Military Families Act, to support workforce development opportunities for child care providers and to add capacity to the child care sector. This builds on work Shaheen supported in the FY24 NDAA, which was signed into law last year and requires the Department of Defense to report to Congress on limited child care development center capacity and opportunities for improvement.
Addressing Sexual Assault in the National Guard:
The FY25 NDAA includes Shaheen’s provision to require the Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces (DAC-IPAD) to conduct a study on how the Committee’s historic 2021 reforms to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) regarding sexual assault in the military can apply to the National Guard. Given its state and local jurisdiction, individual National Guard units are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) unless activated under federal status. The bill also includes Shaheen’s language to strengthen the Office of Complex Investigations (OCI), the National Guard Bureau’s administrative arm responsible for conducting reviews of allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. The FY25 Committee-passed NDAA also includes provisions to address sexual assault in the active-duty Armed Forces, including a provision to extend the Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces for an additional five years and a provision to remove marriage as a defense to rape and sexual assault.
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