Relating to Provisions of the Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Madam President, I wish to express reluctant support for the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

Many parts of the agreement represent bipartisan consensus between Chairman McCain, Chairman Thornberry, Ranking Member Reed, and Ranking Member Adam Smith. We all appreciate their hard work on those matters for our troops and their families.

It provides well-deserved pay increases to our uniformed and defense civilian workforce. It modernizes the personnel benefit system to include a government matched savings plan. It authorizes $300 million in assistance to Ukraine, of which $50 million may be lethal assistance. It codifies the President's Executive order against torture and ensures that interrogations follow the Army Field Manual. I wish to thank Senator McCain and Senator Feinstein in particular for their leadership on this issue.

In addition, it extends the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program so that we may continue to keep faith with foreign translators who risked their lives working with our troops. It authorizes a number of military construction projects around the world, including $29 million in family housing units at Rock Island Arsenal, IL. It reauthorizes the DOD-VA pilot program at North Chicago, the Lovell Federal Health Care Center.

For these and many other reasons, I voted for the agreement, but it is a compromise, and I must express my opposition to a few of its provisions.

One of those points of disagreement is that the bill prevents the closure of the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The reality is that, every day that it remains open, Guantanamo prison weakens our alliances, inspires our enemies, and calls into question our commitment to human rights.

Time and again, our most senior national security and military leaders have called for the closure of Guantanamo. In addition to the national security cost, every day that Guantanamo remains open, we are wasting taxpayer dollars. We are spending $3.3 million per year for each detainee held at Guantanamo Bay--compare that with the estimated $78,000 that it costs to hold a detainee in a Federal super maximum security prison.

Yet the conference agreement makes it even harder to transfer detainees to foreign countries, prohibits transfers to the U.S., and prohibits construction or modification of facilities in the U.S.

All of us are committed to preventing terrorist attacks. Terrorists deserve swift and sure justice and severe prison sentences.

But holding detainees at Guantanamo does not administer justice effectively. It does not serve our national security interests, and it is inconsistent with the country's history as a champion of human rights.

In order to conform to the budget agreement, the bill also includes $1.7 billion in reductions to headquarters management personnel. Everyone in the Senate wants to cut the fat from the Pentagon, but we must make sure that these cuts are targeted toward inefficiency and waste, as opposed to recklessly eliminating our valued DOD civilian workforce.

The women and men who serve our Nation's defense outside of a uniform are our teammates in making our country secure. They process military pay; investigate fraud, waste, and abuse; oversee expensive weapons programs; and many more important functions. I am proud of each DOD civilian, especially those who work in Illinois, and I will work to make sure that the Congress supports their contributions to our country.

This is a very good agreement, these reservations notwithstanding. It is full of provisions which help our troops, reforms the way the Pentagon does business, and provides for our military families. I thank Senator McCain and Senator Reed for their hard work and commend the bill's passage for the 54th year in a row.

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