Today in the House, we passed this year’s U.S. House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)—it’s the bill that authorizes spending for the military, and I’m proud to say that several priorities I pushed for have been included.

First, I’m fighting to eliminate the carryover leave cap. America asks extraordinary things of its men and women in uniform, yet the federal government takes away the compensation those men and women rightfully earned. 

Here's how it works today: any leave saved up beyond 60 days is erased at the end of the fiscal year. Gone. Not because they didn't earn it—or because a commander said they didn't deserve it—but because deployments, shipboard assignments, and training kept them too busy doing the job America asked them to do. Leave isn't a perk, it's earned compensation, just like basic pay and retirement. We wouldn’t dream of capping those. This should work the same way.

Second, I’m pushing for additional leave for our service members. For most Americans, the workday has an end. As many know, when you're deployed, standing watch, or on call around the clock, there's no real line between "on duty" and "off duty"—the job follows you everywhere. Military leave hasn't caught up with that reality: servicemembers still earn just 2.5 days a month, even as we ask more of them than ever. My amendment raises that to 3.5 days a month, so what our troops earn finally matches what we demand of them. 

And those are just my piece of a far bigger bill that’s going to be a historic win for our military. The House also voted to include:

• $1.8 billion for new barracks and family housing, plus better childcare and education for military families.

• Thousands of new defense manufacturing jobs—big news for us in Florida, where defense is the second-largest industry.

• A pay raise of 5 to 7 percent for every service member with the biggest raises going to our junior enlisted troops. 

• Cuts to nearly $30 billion in wasteful programs and a hard 24-month deadline for a clean audit.

Our service members put their lives on the line everyday for to protect our freedoms. Making sure they keep every dollar and every day they've earned is the absolute least we can do.