Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the Senate passed today, includes funding for the Department of Defense Impact Aid programs and extends the Impact Aid Improvement Act of 2012 for an additional three years. Senator Gillibrand secured $25 million for the Department of Defense Impact Aid Supplemental Program and an additional $5 million for the Department of Defense Impact Aid for Children with Severe Disabilities Program. The legislation also extends a series of amendments to the Department of Education Impact Aid Program that improve the program’s efficiency and requires that payments to school districts be made in a timely fashion.
“Families near Fort Drum rely on this funding to keep their schools strong, giving our children the education and services they need,” said Senator Gillibrand, a member of the Armed Services Committee. “This is an important investment in our community that will help our students grow and learn.”
The North Country is home to Fort Drum, a major training center for reserve component forces and units of the New York Army National Guard. Fort Drum occupies more than 107,000 acres of the North County and houses the 10th Mountain Division and more than 1,500 additional military personnel.
Impact Aid is a federal program that provides funding to school districts across the United States that include within their boundaries parcels of land that are owned by the federal government or that have been removed from the local tax rolls by the federal government. Congress has provided critical funding to 1,400 school districts across the country through this program. The Impact Aid programs through the Department of Defense serve military-connected school districts where at least 20-percent of the student population is military dependent. In Fiscal Year 2014, Congress provided funding to 121 military-connected school districts nationwide through the Department of Defense Impact Aid programs, including five school districts in New York, all of which are located near Fort Drum.