A little-known environmental provision in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has no impact on military operations, but will instead serve to “protect the native vegetation,” a Navy spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement Tuesday.
The nearly $884 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday includes an initiative to “manage, control and interdict the coconut rhinoceros beetle” — an invasive species of insect that bore holes into the canopies of palm trees — “on military installations in Hawaii.” By the Navy’s own admission, the initiative’s purpose is to preserve vegetation, and thus is effectively unrelated to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) stated mission “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”
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