S.Amdt. 920

SA 920. Mr. McCAIN (for Mr. Rubio) submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize
appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for military activities of the
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. __. REPORT ON OPERATIONAL CAPACITY AT THE JOINT STRIKE
FIGHTER (JSF) INITIAL JOINT TRAINING SITE AT
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE.

(a) Report Required.--Not later than 180 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense
shall submit to Congress a plan for reaching full operational
capacity at the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Initial Joint
Training Site at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, to provide
operational flexibility across the services and
interoperability with international partners.
(b) Elements.--The report required under subsection (a)
shall include the following elements:
(1) An assessment of the Department of Defense's compliance
with the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decision to
endorse the recommendation by the Secretary of Defense as
enacted into law to establish Eglin Air Force Base, Florida,
as an Initial Joint Training Site that teaches entry-level
aviators and maintenance technicians how to safely operate
and maintain the

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new Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) (F-35) aircraft.
(2) An analysis of the impact effected by the Navy and
Marine Corps drastically reducing their presence at Eglin Air
Force Base on the intended outcome of this decision to allow
the Interservice Training Review Organization process to
establish a Department of Defense baseline program in a
consolidated/joint school with curricula that permit services
latitude to preserve service-unique culture and a faculty and
staff that brings a ``Train as we fight: jointly'' national
perspective to the learning process.
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