Defense Authorization bill was signed Wednesday

I can't help thinking it's a trap.

S. 1356, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Opens a .pdf, all 584 pages of it.)

Military.com reports that they have finally passed a "blended" retirement program. When I was getting ready to retire, it was being reported that the Pentagon was resisting calls to include the Uniformed Services in the government's IRA program, because it would lead to reductions in retirement pay. OTOH, this looks like it will result in some sort of payout for those who leave with less than 20 years. You get a lot of time-servers after about the 12 year mark, not sayin' I would have left earlier if I had the prospect of getting paid, but...

It also includes "language designed to stop Obama from closing the detention facilities at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

Plus:

Allowing personal firearms on stateside bases — Lawmakers are requiring Defense Secretary Ash Carter to develop a plan by the end of this year that would allow stateside base commanders to decide whether to allow their service members to carry personal firearms on duty, or in areas where that is currently restricted by the military. Any such plan would not supercede local laws.

Per the NRA-ILA (which incorrectly refers to the bill as the Defense Appropriations Bill"*) also

...clarifies an exception in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that pertains to ammunition. Although TSCA clearly exempts “cartridges” and “shells” from the Act’s jurisdiction, radical environmental groups like the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) have for years been trying to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate lead projectiles under the Act. ...

Section 315 of the NDAA makes explicit the clear intent of the exception, which was to conclusively remove ammunition from the scope of the TSCA. Thus, the exception now includes not just shells and cartridges but “components of shot shells and cartridges.”

 Finally, Section 1087. The NRA again:

Rounding out the list of pro-gun provisions is section 1087, which restores authorization to the Secretary of Defense to transfer to the Civilian Marksmanship Program surplus M1911 and M1911A1 .45 ACP pistols for sale to the public. The component of the CMP that dispenses the pistols would be required to obtain a federal firearms license and abide by all requirements of the Gun Control Act pertaining to licensed sales and transfers. Currently, the military has some 100,000 such pistols that it no longer needs and that are being stored as taxpayer expense. These historically-significant firearms can now be transferred to law-abiding owners at a net gain to the government’s heavily-indebted balance sheet.

 I'll take two, please.

***

*From the Military.Com article: "The legislation is only half the annual budget process for Congress. Lawmakers still need to pass a defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2016 to start new programs and acquisition plans. Congressional leaders are hopeful that can be done before Dec. 11, when a short-term budget extension expires."