FY-17 NDAA General Summary Here With Good Links

Below are links to three good documents on the FY17 NDAA that Congress passed.  I've also include a brief summary put together by an AFRICOM Foreign Affairs Specialist.  Finally, I've included a link here to a post on the Security Cooperation specific portions of the act.

FY17 NDAA Bill Summary
CRS R4497 Fact Sheet FY17 NDAA Highlights
Mercy Corps Press Release Praising NDAA USAID Funding Transfer Authority

In an effort to respond to the complaints of our military commanders and the

Department more broadly, the the FY-17 NDAA contains a major reform designed

to modernize and streamline DOD's security cooperation enterprise.

Specifically, the bill consolidates security cooperation authorities from

Title 10 and elsewhere in public law into a single chapter of U.S. code

(Chapter 16, Section 333) . Of note, the bill repeals numerous existing

so-called "train and equip" authorities and replaces them with one authority

that incorporates all of the Department's existing "train and equip"

authorized activities, greatly enhancing DOD's ability to address the

wide-ranging and evolving nature of global threats.

Additionally, the NDAA consolidates more than $2.0 billion in associated

security cooperation funding into a new fund (Security Cooperation

Enhancement Fund), enhancing transparency, flexibility, transparency, and

congressional oversight. For too long, the Department's activities in this

area have been diffuse and have lacked strategic coordination - both

regionally and functionally. A central fund will allow the Department's

senior civilian and military leaders to make strategic choices with respect

to the allocation of security cooperation resources against strategic

priorities rather than being forced to patch together disparate funding

sources to achieve objectives. The bill also requires the Secretary of

Defense to submit an annual consolidated budget justification for its

security cooperation activities.

The reform package also directs the Secretary of Defense to create a DOD

security cooperation workforce program to oversee the development and

management of a professional workforce supporting security cooperation

programs of the DOD, as well as the execution of security assistance

programs and activities under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms

Control Act by the DOD. While DOD strategic guidance has increased the

emphasis on security cooperation programs and activities in furtherance of

its security objectives, it has not devoted sufficient attention and

resources to the development, management, and sustainment of the DOD's

security cooperation workforce. Building security capabilities of a partner

nation through security cooperation requires a specialized set of skills and

the current system neither develops those skills among its workforce nor

rationally assigns its workforce to match appropriate skills with requirements. Increased

attention and resourcing must be focused on the recruitment, training,

certification, assignment, and career development of the security

cooperation workforce in order to ensure the effective planning, monitoring,

execution, and evaluation of security cooperation programs and activities

In addition to the aforementioned T10, Chapter 16, Section 333 Security

Cooperation authorities, a new authority under Section 385 of the NDAA

allows the Secretary of Defense to transfer up to $75 million to agencies

like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the

Department of State to implement foreign assistance programs, such as

community-led conflict mitigation, good governance and peacebuilding, to

address the root causes of violence. The desired goal with the addition of

this provision in the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is to

enable the U.S. government to more effectively tackle drivers of violence

and violent extremism.