Omaha City Wire

Rep. Don Bacon (NE-02) announced that several Nebraska priorities were included in a series of fiscal year 2025 national security appropriations bills passed by the House of Representatives with bipartisan majorities.

The appropriation bills include:

- $1.5 billion for the continued development of the Air Force’s Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) aircraft, which will replace the fleet of E-4B National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) aircraft based at Offutt Air Force Base.

- $15 million for nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) modernization activities conducted by the Nebraska Defense Research Corporation’s Research, Engineering, Architecture, and Collaboration Hub (REACH) project.

- $5.5 million to continue implementation of the Air Force’s Infectious Disease Air Transport (IDAT) training center in partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

- $5 million to research warfighter musculoskeletal health and performance by the University of Nebraska at Omaha in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.

- $5 million to implement the Air Force Rapid Response Language Training Pilot Program established by Bacon in the House FY2025 NDAA to explore new technologies and methods to rapidly train military linguists in response to new and emerging mission requirements.

- $2 million for the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE), the Department of Homeland Security's Center of Excellence for terrorism prevention and counterterrorism research, to assess threats to public officials at federal, state, and local levels.

- $2 million to develop and integrate a wireless RC-135 digital fleet maintenance management capability.

- $1 million for the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s National Strategic Research Institute, USSTRATCOM’s university-affiliated research center.

“Nebraska has long been recognized as an engine of innovation in agriculture, medical, financial services, construction, transportation, and technology sectors. However, over the last several years Nebraska has earned a reputation as one of America’s leading centers of defense and national security research,” said Rep. Bacon. “I will always be a strong advocate for Nebraska and today’s vote by the House provides a strong endorsement of Nebraska’s growing leadership in defense and national security.”