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WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the following statement Friday following unanimous Senate passage of the Defense Appropriations bill, H.R. 3222, which provides more than $450 billion in funding for troops and military programs. The Senate-House compromise bill passed late Thursday and now goes to the President for his signature. “I’m encouraged the Senate finally passed this bill that contains important funding for a pay raise for the troops, improved delivery of their health care and Texas-based programs critical for our national defense. “The bill includes a 3.5 percent increase in pay for all military service members. This will go a long way toward improving their quality of life and will give much-deserved support for their sacrifices and efforts in defense of freedom. “This bill also includes funding to implement dramatic changes to the way health care is delivered to our military personnel. Provisions of the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, which I co-sponsored, will greatly improve treatment and delivery of health care for our troops, particularly those most recently wounded on the battlefields of the global war on terror. This will help us further cut the bureaucratic red tape that has regrettably gotten in the way of health care for our troops, as we witnessed at Walter Reed earlier this year. “Texas is the home of many defense programs that are critical to our national defense. The bill contains substantial funding for several key programs, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 Raptor, the V-22 Osprey aircraft, and the new Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter. Aircraft such as these are the reason we have the finest military in the world. As the global war on terror continues, we must strengthen our ability to defeat those who would seek to harm the United States and its citizens. “In addition, funding in the bill will help increase the size of both the Army and Marine Corps by 13,000 and 9,000 troops respectively. This will strengthen our active-duty military forces and increase the time between overseas deployments for our troops. This is a crucial step in ensuring the military is able to meet our national security goals now and in the years to come.” Sen. Cornyn serves on the Armed Services, Judiciary and Budget Committees. In addition, he is Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Border Security and Refugees subcommittee and the Armed Services Committee’s Airland subcommittee.