The National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2014, P. L. 113-66 (H. R. 3304) began life on
October 22, 2013, as a bill to authorize and request the
President to award the Medal of Honor to Bennie G. Adkins and
Donald P. Sloat of the United States Army for acts of valor
during the Vietnam Conflict and to authorize the award of the
Medal of Honor to certain other veterans who were previously
recommended for award of the Medal of Honor. This
3-section bill passed the House on October 28, 2013. On
November 19, 2013, the bill passed the Senate with minor
amendments, which of course, went back to the House for
approval. On December 12, 2013, the House agreed to the
Senate's minor amendment and added an amendment of its own.
That amendment included the adoption of House Resolution 441,
which upon its passage, approved the Senate amendments and added
a National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (NDAA).
This was a new version of the NDAA. This new version
included a Section 4 under Sec. 4, Organization of Act Into
Divisions; Table of Contents. That Section 4 was the
"Explanatory Statement." This statement explains:
The explanatory statement regarding
this Act, printed in the House section of the Congressional
Record on or about December 11, 2013, by the Chairman of the
Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives,
shall have the same effect with respect to the implementation
of this Act as if it were a joint explanatory statement of a
committee of conference.
The House amendment states there is no
conference committee report and that there only is an
explanatory statement in the Congressional Record. On
December 19, 2013, the Senate passed the bill and on December
26, 2013, it was signed into law as P. L. 113-66.
The 2 original
versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2014 had varying amounts of trouble getting through
Congress. The House version
was
H. R. 1960 and was reported by the House Committee on
Armed Services with H. Rpt.
113-102 on June 7, 2013. It was amended and passed by
the House on June 14, 2013. On June 20, 2013, the Chairman
of the Senate Committee on Armed Services reported
S. 1197 with S. Rpt.
113-044. S. 1197 was considered in the Senate on
December 9, 2013 without passing.
H. R. 3304, now P. L. 113-66, was available to amend with an
NDAA and it was used to pass it. Fortunately, the
explanatory statement serves the purpose of a conference
committee report. Many of the sections that were
incorporated into H. R. 3304 from H. R. 1960 and S. 1197 were
explained in H. Rpt. 113-102 and S. Rpt. 113-044. Some
sections that made it into law were added after the 2 reports
were issued leaving only the explanatory statement to explain
the purpose of the section.
The starting point for your review is
the NDAA Contents linked above. That lists the sections
subjectively selected from the NDAA. The individual
sections list P. L. 113-66's sections in the left column.
In the right column, the corresponding section from the
explanatory statement is listed first, then the sections from
the House and/or Senate Reports that are named in the
explanatory statement are listed below |
