Each year, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees take up their respective versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These bills contain numerous provisions that affect military personnel, retirees, and their family members. Provisions in one version are often not included in another; are treated differently; or, in certain cases, are identical. Following passage of these bills by the respective legislative bodies, a conference committee is usually convened to resolve the various differences between the House and Senate versions. In the course of a typical authorization cycle, congressional staffs receive many requests for information on provisions contained in the annual NDAA. This report highlights those personnel-related issues that seem likely to generate high levels of congressional and constituent interest, and tracks their status in the House and Senate versions of the FY2014 NDAA. The process was not typical for the 2014 NDAA. The initial House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, H.R. 1960 (113 th Congress), was introduced in the House on May 14, 2013; reported by the House Committee on Armed Services on June 7, 2013 ( H.Rept. 113-102 ); and passed by the House on June 14, 2013. A Senate version, S. 1197 (113 th Congress), was introduced in the Senate on June 20, 2013, and reported by the Senate Committee on Armed Services ( S.Rept. 113-44 ) on the same day without amendment. The Senate did not pass this bill however. Instead, the House passed a second bill, H.R. 3304 , on October 28, 2013, the text of which had been negotiated between members of the House and Senate. The Senate agreed to the House bill on December 19, 2013 without amendment. The bill was presented to the President on December 23 and signed into law on December 26 ( P.L. 113-66 ). No reports or explanatory statements for the enacted bill were approved by either body. The entries under the heading "House" in the tables on the following pages are based on language from the initial bill, H.R. 1960 , unless otherwise indicated. The entries under the heading "Enacted" refer to H.R. 3304 as enacted. Related CRS products are identified to provide more detailed background information and analysis of the issues. For each issue, a CRS analyst is identified and contact information is provided. Some issues were addressed in the FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act and discussed in CRS Report R42651, FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act: Selected Military Personnel Policy Issues , coordinated by [author name scrubbed]. Those issues that were considered previously are designated with a " * " in the relevant section titles of this report. Background: The authorized active duty end strengths for FY2001, enacted in the year prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, were as follows: Army (480,000), Navy (372,642), Marine Corps (172,600), and Air Force (357,000). Over the next decade, in response to the demands of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress increased the authorized personnel strength of the Army and Marine Corps. Some of these increases were quite substantial, particularly after FY2006, but Congress began reversing these increases in light of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011 and a drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan which began in 2012. In FY2013, the authorized end strength for the Army was 552,100, while the authorized end strength for the Marine Corps was 197,300. The Army has proposed reducing its personnel strength to 490,000 by FY2015 while the Marine Corps has proposed reducing its personnel strength to 175,000 by FY2017. End-strength for the Air Force and Navy has decreased since 2001. The authorized end strength for FY2013 was 329,460 for the Air Force and 322,700 for the Navy. Discussion: With the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and the ongoing drawdown in Afghanistan, the final bill included major reductions in Army (-32,100) and Marine Corps (-7,100) end strengths in comparison to their FY2013 authorized end strengths. It also slightly reduced the end strength for the Air Force (-1,860) while slightly increasing it for the Navy (+900). The figures in H.R. 1960, the Senate committee-reported bill ( S. 1197 ), and H.R. 3304 are identical to the Administration's proposal. Taken together, the final bill stipulates a total active duty end strength which is 40,160 lower than the FY2013 level, almost entirely due to reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps. However, both the Army and the Marine Corps finished FY2013 well below their authorized end strength levels. The Army's strength at the end of FY2013 was 532,043 (instead of the authorized 552,100) and the Marine Corps' was 195,848 (instead of the authorized 197,300). Therefore, the required strength reductions in those services for FY2014 would be around 18,000. Reference(s): Previously discussed in CRS Report R42651, FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act: Selected Military Personnel Policy Issues , FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act: Selected Military Personnel Policy Issues, coordinated by [author name scrubbed], and similar reports from earlier years. See also CRS Report RL32965, Recruiting and Retention: An Overview of FY2011 and FY2012 Results for Active and Reserve Component Enlisted Personnel , by [author name scrubbed], Recruiting and Retention: An Overview of FY2011 and FY2012 Results for Active and Reserve Component Enlisted Personnel, by [author name scrubbed]. CRS Point of Contact: [author name scrubbed], x[phone number scrubbed]. Background: Although the Reserves have been used extensively in support of operations since September 11, 2001, the overall authorized end strength of the Selected Reserves has declined by about 3% over the past 12 years (874,664 in FY2001 versus 850,880 in FY2013). Much of this can be attributed to the reduction in Navy Reserve strength during this period. There were also modest shifts in strength for some other components of the Selected Reserve. For comparative purposes, the authorized end strengths for the Selected Reserves for FY2001 were as follows: Army National Guard (350,526), Army Reserve (205,300), Navy Reserve (88,900), Marine Corps Reserve (39,558), Air National Guard (108,022), Air Force Reserve (74,358), and Coast Guard Reserve (8,000). Between FY2001 and FY2013, the largest shifts in authorized end strength occurred in the Army National Guard (+7,674 or +2.2%), Coast Guard Reserve (+1,000 or +12.5%), Air Force Reserve (-3,478 or -4.7%), and Navy Reserve (-26,400 or -29.7%). A smaller change occurred in the Air National Guard (-2,322 or -2.1%), while the authorized end strengths of the Army Reserve (-300 or -0.15%) and the Marine Corps Reserve (+42 or +0.11%) have been largely unchanged during this period. Discussion: The provisions in H.R. 1960, the Senate committee-reported bill ( S. 1197 ), and H.R. 3304 were identical. In the final bill, the authorized Selected Reserve end strengths for FY2014 are the same as those for FY2013 for the Army Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, and the Coast Guard Reserve. The Navy Reserve's authorized end strength was 62,500 in FY2013, but the Administration requested a decrease to 59,100 (-3,400) which the final bill approved. The Army National Guard's authorized end strength in FY2013 was 358,200; the Administration requested a decrease to 354,200 (-4,000) which the final bill also approved. The Air National Guard's end strength in FY2013 was 105,700 and the Air Force Reserve's was 70,880. The Administration proposed reducing these slightly to 105,400 (-300) and 70,400 (-480), respectively, and the final bill agreed. CRS Point of Contact: [author name scrubbed], x[phone number scrubbed]. Background: Increasing concern with the overall cost of military personnel, combined with ongoing military operations in Afghanistan, has continued to focus interest on the military pay raise. Section 1009 of Title 37 provides a permanent formula for an automatic annual increase in basic pay that is indexed to the annual increase in the Employment Cost Index (ECI). The increase in basic pay for 2014 under this statutory formula would be 1.8%; however, Congress can pass a law to provide otherwise and the President asserts that he has authority under 37 USC 1009(e) to specify an alternative pay adjustment. The FY2014 President's Budget requested a 1.0% military pay raise, lower than the statutory formula. According to the Department of Defense, this smaller increase would save "$540 million in FY 2014 and nearly $3.5 billion through FY 2018." On August 30, 2013, the President sent a letter to Congress stating "I have determined it is appropriate to exercise my authority under Section 1009(e) of title 37, United States Code, to set the 2014 monthly basic pay increase at 1.0 percent...The adjustments described above shall take effect on the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2014." Discussion: The House-passed bill contained no provision to specify the rate of increase in basic pay, while the Senate committee-reported bill ( S. 1197 ) specified an increase of 1%. The final bill contained no provision regarding the rate of increase in basic pay. Normally, this would leave in place the statutory pay raise formula specified in 37 U.S.C. 1009, which equates to an increase of 1.8% on January 1, 2014.